Friendly Parks and Fancy Kicks
by rooroopower
Summary: Kari gets ditched on her wedding day and is found by TK on the streets. Before she knows it, she's living at his house and relying on him of all people to help her get back on her feet. While living with him, memories of their past together begins to resurface and she comes to realize that he may have actually loved her from the start. Takari AU
1. Chapter 1 This Is Where We Met

**Disclaimer**: I'm flattered that you care but no, I don't own Digimon or any of the characters.

**A/N** This is my first story ever ever ever. It's pretty exciting that you get to be a part of it so thank you for giving my story a chance. :)

The way this story works is that it switches a lot from past to present so pay attention. I'm pretty sure it's clear but sorry if you get confused. If nothing makes sense it's probably because the timeline changed lolololol. I know. Sounds super fun. And here is the full summary! It's actually only one sentence longer haha whoops.

**That Full Summary:** There are two plot lines that come together in the end. One takes place in the present and another takes place in the past. Kari gets ditched on her wedding day and is found by TK on the streets. Before she knows it, she's living at his house and relying on him of all people to help her get back on her feet. While living with him, memories of their past together begins to resurface and she comes to realize that he may have actually loved her from the start. Takari AU

I will be using English dub names.

Yes. It is that time! Ladies and gentlames, I present to you my first story ever. :)

**Present ~ June 2012**

The train of her wedding dress dragged behind her as she ran as fast as she could away from the church where she knew everyone was waiting for her. The pain of her bare feet against the cement was numb as it paled in comparison to the agony that was quickly taking over her heart. With the make-up running down her face from the tears, she knew she looked like an absolute fool; however, the horrifying situation was enough justification to ignore the judgments of nameless observers. All she could think about was one thing: to get as far away as possible because she was definitely not in the mood to be surrounded by anyone she knew at the moment.

It was supposed to be her special day. A day where she was to be adorned by families and friends when she stepped out of the wooden double doors of the chapel, clothed in white from head to toe, radiating purity and beauty as she made her way down the aisle to come face-to-face with the adoration of a man that meant the most to her. Much to her horror, she was never able to make it after a surprise note was found under her door only 30 minutes before the beginning of the ceremony.

_A sweet hum could be heard from her dressing room as Kari's make-up was being applied by her best friend Sora. She stared at herself in the mirror and was in awe of her own beauty. Kari was never impressed by the image of her face in the past but something about the way Sora had presented her and the current situation of her wedding made her feel like a million bucks._

"_Sora…thank you. It looks great…really" spoke Kari with a blush tint to go along with the small smile on her face._

"_Of course Kari, anything for you on your special day," said Sora with the compassionate warmth that always carried in her tone whenever she spoke. _

"_You really are the best friend a girl could ever have. I can't believe we've come so far together and I would have never survived without you." Sora had been with Kari since they were young and grew up together in Tokyo. They knew everything about each other and supported one another through every storm of life after another._

"_Oh Kari. You don't have to thank me. You know I'd do anything for you. And it wasn't all just me. You had your family's love to support you and the love from others…" Sora began to trail off as if a painful memory had resurfaced in her mind and caused her discomfort. The discomfort began to show on her face and did not escape from Kari._

"_Is something wrong? You look worried, Sora. What are you thinking about?"_

"_Oh, it's nothing!" Sora responded with a hesitant look on her face. "Really it's nothing." Sora had always been supportive of the boys Kari had liked in the past and even gave her opinions of her love interests and spoke her mind about everything. However, there was always one boy that she knew was right for Kari but he had suddenly disappeared from her life. It saddened Sora but she knew that Kari was a strong woman and could probably live happily with any other man. She trusted Kari's fiancé after all. He cared for her and never gave a reason for either of them to doubt him. Despite his carelessness at times, his light heart was pure and genuine and could be a suitable spouse to any woman. _

"_Alright Sora. If you say so. Remember, you can tell me anything. Even though I guess it's a weird time right now…" Kari began to ponder. "Oh gosh. We're being so sappy. It's probably just the emotions getting to me," she giggled in amusement. Kari typically wasn't one for sappiness but the situation had called for it._

"_Don't worry about it. And as sappy as it sounds, I'll always love you, Kari. I really hope he makes you happy forever."_

"_Thanks Sora. I'll always love you too. You know—" Kari was about to continue to take advantage of the emotional situation and reminisce on her past with Sora. However, she was interrupted by a small knock at the door. "Who is it?" Kari called out, but nobody responded. Instead, a note was slid under the door. Kari hopped out of her seat and ran toward the door to pick it up._

_Sora observed her best friend and began to worry as she realized that Kari's face had suddenly gone pale and her eyes began to dull. "Kari? What's wrong? What's going on? What does the note say?" She watched as Kari began to lose the air of confidence and grace she had carried only minutes before as her posture began to weaken and her broken voice began to read the words aloud._

"'_My dearest Kari, you're receiving this note from me because I'm not coming. I'm sorry. I slept with another woman last week and I can't bring myself to marry you like this. I need some time. I promise to return to you and fully explain myself in the future. Best of luck to you, Kari. Stay strong. Don't be a coward like me. I love you. –Davis'" _

_Tears began to stream from Kari's lifeless eyes as she tried to comprehend the situation. It was almost as if she couldn't feel anything because so many emotions were running through her mind to the point where she wasn't even sure what to feel anymore._

"_No…this can't be real," said Sora in disbelief. "No…" She moved toward Kari who was still attempting to stand in her heels. Sora began to feel anger as she stared at her friend who was dressed in her wedding gown. On a day where she was supposed to feel so much love, she was instead forced to feel so much pain by the one she cared for the most. It wasn't fair at all._

"_Sora…what do I do?" Kari asked her best friend as she painfully looked her in the eye. "I—I…I don't know what do…I can't—I can't—"_

"_Go, Kari. Run."_

"_What?" she asked in disbelief._

"_Just go. I promise I will take care of everything and let everyone know the situation. The most important thing for you to do right now is to go. Call me later to let me know you're alright, okay? Now go. Hurry! Run!" Sora watched as her best friend nodded in agreement and stormed out the door to escape from the harsh reality that stormed upon a day that was meant to be like a fairy tale. "Good luck Kari. You're a strong girl. I know you can get through this. You always do." _

After running for who knows how long, Kari grew tired and decided to stop by a park and sit on a bench to cool down. She could hear the words of the children nearby asking their mothers what was going on and the harsh words of the parents to tell their children to be quiet. None of it mattered to her. She knew she was pitiful. It wasn't news to her anymore.

After her sobbing began to die down, Kari raised her head to look around her. Something about the park struck familiarity with her. Although her heart was crying in agony, something about this place began to cool her down and almost feel at peace. Almost. After all, this was the park where she first met him.

Shaking her head, Kari gave a long sigh and decided to put her head back down against her knees. _He _was not a topic she wanted on her mind at the moment. She began to worry about the ceremony instead. Although it wasn't her fault, she still felt bad knowing that people were probably very angry and worried about her. Her cell phone was currently off but she knew that if she turned it on, there would probably be hundreds of missed calls and messages. She pushed the thought away and decided to let her mind wander about nothing. Thinking about the situation was not going to make anything better. However, within a few moments, she was quickly brought back to reality as a familiar voice called out to her.

"Kari?" She attempted to match a voice with the name but something within her heart refused to believe who the voice belonged to. It couldn't be…could it? She questioned God whether or not He was up to no good because if she was hearing things correctly, the voice belonged to the boy that was occupying her thoughts only moments ago. The boy she met at this very park 8 years ago.

"Omigosh! Kar! It's really you!" Kari's heart sank. There was only one person that called her by that ridiculous nickname. She hated it and he knew it. "I mean it was a little hard to tell since I don't normally see you in a wedding dress but I mean come on. You know I can recognize you from—" the voice was caught as Kari finally lifted her head no more than an inch away from his as she came face-to-face with the very eyes that had haunted her throughout almost all of her high school career.

They were nothing like the bright, cheerful eyes of her fiancé, Davis, that made her smile and laugh with ease. His eyes were deep and puzzling, and looking into them at that very moment made her forget to breathe as she tried to understand what his eyes were trying to say to her. It was those blue eyes that drove her crazy for reasons she could never understand. They were the last pair of eyes she thought she would look into that day. And though it was stirring a small, but crazy fire at the bottom of her heart, for some reason she felt truly at peace as his hand slowly came up to her face to wipe away a tear with his thumb. Kari finally withdrew a long, deep breath.

"Hi TK," she spoke. And to her surprise, his eyes warmed and he smiled at her as his hand left her face and took her right hand into his.

"Hey Kari. I missed you."

**8 years ago ~ August 2004**

It was the first day of Kari's sophomore year and she wanted to start it off right. This was the year that she was going to get good grades, win art competitions, maybe get a boyfriend…Kari facepalmed at that last though. It was probably not a good idea to get one with everything that was going on with her life at the moment.

Kari sighed as she stared at the six outfits she went through before deciding on one for her first day. She promised herself she would clean it up later. Hopefully. Kari decided to go with a white lace tank top and yellow curtain skirt that tied a bow around the waist. It was a simple and cute outfit that didn't go too far and so she was satisfied.

After realizing the time, she sprinted down the stairs to the kitchen. Before stuffing a bread roll in her face, she took time to look at the picture of her parents on the table. Kari smiled warmly at the picture and began to talk to her parents as if they were there before her.

"Good morning Mom. Good morning Dad. How are you two doing today? I kept the house super clean yesterday! Except my room…but you don't live in there so it's okay! I swear I'll clean that up when I get home from school!" she giggled to herself. "Alright, I gotta head out now! I love you two. Stay strong and I will visit you guys soon." And with that, she sprinted out of her door with her backpack and books to fight the time and not be late on her first day of school.

As Kari turned around the corner to cut through the park, she looked down at her cell phone to check the time. She cursed inwardly realizing she only had 10 minutes left before the bell rang. She still had a good ways to go and still had to get to her locker and find her first class. The mission seemed almost impossible. She reasoned to herself that if she set her mind to it, she could do anything. All she had to do was run the fastest two miles of her life despite the lack of status of being a runner but it was okay because she would just pretend she was a cheetah running from her prey in a jungle and—

"Look out!" cried a voice in the wilderness. Before she knew it, she was no longer a cheetah racing in a jungle, but a teenage girl completely embarrassed in a park who had just ran into a boy who appeared to be her age. She looked at him straight in the eyes. At least he was a cute boy.

After reasoning it through her mind a little more, she concluded that it was worse that he was a cute boy because she had just embarrassed herself in front of this cute boy. She decided to lower her head in embarrassment after fully realizing the situation…until she realized that she did not fully realize the situation because as she put her head down, her forehead found its way against a warm and strong chest that she was 100% certain was not the ground.

Not only had she run into a stranger, but she had fumbled and knocked both of them down to the ground. Yes. She was certain that this was the fully realized situation: she was on the ground in the arms of a stranger in the middle of a park.

"Omigosh I am so sorry! I didn't hurt you anywhere did I?" She exclaimed. "I swear I didn't mean to do this on purpose. I was just trying to get to class on time since it's the first day of school and I'm still so far away and oh shoot! What time is it?" Kari fumbled through her purse to check the time once more. "Dang it! 7 minutes left. I'm so sorry about this really, I swear. Okay I'm going to get off your arms. You're really comfortable Mr. Stranger. Thanks for shielding me from the ground. Okay bye!" And with that, she took off running again.

"You're really comfortable Mr. Stranger? Really? Did I say that? Ugh, I'm already embarrassing myself on the first day. Not good," she thought to herself. She ended up being late to her first class.

TK continued to sit there on the ground and stare off at the place where the girl had run away right before his eyes. Despite her clumsy and messy composure, he couldn't help but keep his eyes locked on hers. They were full of life and joy and one look into them seemed to give him strength. Everything about her glowed and he realized that he needed to see her one more time. He was going to find her again for sure.

**Present ~ June 2012**

"Hey Kari. I missed you." The warmth of the situation immediately escaped as Kari quickly jerked her hand out of his and used it to smack TK on the arm. TK teasingly wailed out in pain, only causing Kari to get even more annoyed.

"Don't give me that crap you freak!" she screamed as she attacked TK's face with pinches and flicks. She needed some way to release her anger and she had plenty of reasons to use him for it.

"Ow! What the heck woman. That hurt. Yeeowch!" he cried, but to no avail, Kari refused to stop. There was only one way to bring her to rest and he knew fully well how to do it.

"Eep!" she squealed and fell off the bench after being poked on the sides by TK. "What was that you jerk?"

TK gaped his mouth open in pretend shock. "How dare you," he said, pretending to look hurt. "I of all people, approached you, who, by the way, are looking absolutely beautiful right now—OW!" he cried in response to Kari punching him on the arm. "Stop that! I can't believe you're calling me a jerk. You're the one that started attacking me. You're lucky I'm even talking to you I mean seriously. Look at you right now. There are no words to describe how odd you look sitting on the floor by a bench in the middle of a park."

And he was right. She really did look ridiculous in the park and their childish feud was not helping her case at the moment. If it was any other person that had said those words to her, she knew she probably would have started crying; however, this was TK. And because it was TK, she was furious. And so she attacked again.

"I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you," she declared with repeated slaps to his arm. "Why did you of all people have to show up in my life after 5 years of disappearing and see me in my absolute worst state ever? Why?" After a few more punches, she began to slow down to a stop and laid her head against her knees again.

TK sighed and knelt before her with an outstretched hand. "Come on. Let's go." Kari looked up at him with a confused look on her face.

"What?" she asked in wide eyes in disbelief.

TK gave a chuckle and smiled warmly towards her. "It's been a tough day right? Let's go and get you out of here. You're going to set a bad example for the kids here and mess up their idea of what weddings and marriages are all about. Then the future of the world will be corrupted and it will all be your fault. Now come on, let's go," he teased and stuck his tongue out at her.

Kari scoffed at him, not forgetting to smack him on the arm one last time. TK let out a laugh, before taking her hand and lifting both of them up.

"Since you're in a wedding dress, should I carry you bridal style in my arms, my dear?" he joked with a wink.

"Should I hit you one more time?" she threatened.

"Fine, fine. Follow me, Kar!" he responded while pretending to look scared.

"Don't call me that! It's been 5 years. Haven't you outgrown calling me that by now, TK?"

"I actually go by Takeru now. It makes me feel more mature ya know?—"

"Shut up TK," she quickly interjected

TK let out a sigh. "Fine, Kar. Whatever makes you happy."

The rest of the way to TK's car was in silence as Kari began to question herself about what she was doing at the moment. She was doing the very last thing she ever thought she would be doing at the moment with the last person in the world she thought she would be with. As they walked, TK kept a firm hold on Kari's hand because he knew that at that moment, even though she would never admit it, what she needed most desperately was someone to keep her from feeling alone.

After exiting the parking lot, TK looked over to his side to check up on how Kari was doing. "You alright there? Feeling comfortable? I know cars aren't exactly meant to hold a wedding dress in them but if there's anything I can do…"

"I'm okay," she replied with a polite smile on her face. "Honestly, I'm thankful for anything that will keep me away from the public eye right now."

TK faked a gasp causing a threatening look from Kari. He was not shaken. "Wow Kar! I didn't know you were the thankful type. Are you actually going to say thank you to me? I never thought I would see the day…"

He knew it was coming. In response, Kari smacked him on the arm without care to fact that he was driving. He deserved to get in an accident and with the pitiful state that her life was in, why not add more pity to the platter with a tragic car accident? "You're an idiot TK. You never did anything for me to deserve a thank you, you jerk."

"Oh come on Kar…"

"Don't call me that!"

"I know I did a lot of mean things to you in high school but I'm sure there was at least one thing I did for you. Come on! Think hard!"

Kari huffed at him in the familiar annoyance he had given her for three years straight of her youth. There was no doubt in her mind how much she hated this man and how he clearly had not grown up for the past five years. "Does it matter? All the good things you've done to me could never make up for the million ways you teased me and made a fool of me. So no thank you's for you. You can bet on it."

TK chuckled to himself. "You know I could totally just drop you off on the highway right now. I mean, I am doing you a favor right now? Come on, Kar! Just one thank you!" he pleaded.

"No way! But I guess it was really nice of you to give me a ride…fine. This makes up for one-third of the problems you gave me. Happy?"

"Absolutely!" he cheered with a bright smile on his face. Kari facepalmed at his reaction and grumbled to herself. She really needed to break her facepalming habit. It hurt. She could hear TK silently laughing at her and grew even more annoyed.

Kari began to wonder if this was a really bad idea. She hopped into the car of her least favorite person in the world on the day of her wedding. Not that she was going to get married…but still. This was truly ridiculous. She didn't even know for sure where he was taking her or what he was going to do to her. What if he became an even worse person of the years and became a rapist?

"I'm not going to rape you Kari," he mused at her.

"I wasn't thinking that…"

"You so were" he interrupted. "It's written all over your face. I can and have always been able to read your cute little face like a book, Kari," he winked at her with a sly smile.

Kari gave a deep sigh, "Okay. I give up. You are tiring me out."

"I'm sorry Kar" he responded with a pout.

"Yeah. Sure. So anyways…" Kari began with a drag, "why haven't you asked me yet?"

"Asked you what?"

"You know…that…"

"Kari, you're going to have to be more specific. I really, positively, have absolutely no clue what in the world you are ever so talking about." His sly smile never wavered.

"Wow, you're just trying to push my buttons every chance you get."

TK continued to laugh by himself. It seemed to be the trend that day. Kari glaring and TK laughing all by himself. That trend. "I don't know. You seemed really bummed out when I saw you. I figured you would bring it up with me in your own time."

"Wow. Mr. Jokes and Jerks can actually be thoughtful and mature at times. I'm impressed! Maybe you have grown up _Takeru,_" she joked with him while nudging his side with her shoulder.

"What's that supposed to mean…I was being serious. I won't force it out of you. When you're comfortable and ready, you can let me know what happened and why you're…like this, I guess."

"You were being serious, huh? Really."

"Well, let me be serious with you, Kari. Just for a moment." TK took a deep breath and continued. "First of all, I'm not going to hurt you okay? We'll go to my house, let you rest up, and discuss what we're going to do tomorrow. Right now, I just want you to feel better, alright? "

Kari nodded her head in agreement.

"Second of all, even though you probably don't think so at the moment, you look beautiful. I'm sure that if your fiancé actually got to see how wonderful you looked this morning, he wouldn't have thought twice about staying with you and marrying you."

Kari was taken aback by this. It was weird hearing compliments from TK. He had always picked on her so these moments were rare and she had no plans of interrupting him.

"And finally, I meant what I said earlier. Do you remember the first thing I told you today?"

Kari stared ahead and tried to remember. She slowly shook her head.

"I said that I missed you. It's probably hard to believe thinking about all that hell I brought you through in high school, but I really did miss you, Kari. These past 5 years, I never forgot about the silly girl that made my high school life just a little bit more exciting," he stated with a warm smile towards her. "So, was that serious enough for you?"

Kari let the words sink in slowly before she responded with a quiet yes. After realizing how worn out Kari looked next to him, he decided to put his teasing to rest and allow the rest of the car ride to be driven in silence. As much fun as it was to pick on her and let her mind focus on other things such as beating him up, he understood how much she needed to rest and close her eyes and be left alone.

As they drove off into the setting sun on the way to TK's house, Kari flipped the sun blocker down and opened the mirror to check out her make-up. Not to her surprise, she looked incredibly dumb. Her mascara was ruined and messy, and she felt slightly embarrassed that she let TK see her like this, not that his opinion really mattered. Then again, he did complement her just now. However, to her surprise, she saw something she did not expect to see. As broken as Davis' letter had made her at first, there was still life in her eyes. Maybe hopping into TK's car wasn't such a bad idea. Maybe it would become the beginning of something great in her life—a new chapter of her own to show the world that she wasn't ready to back down yet.

Kari decided to give up fixing her make-up and flipped the sun blocker back up. She rested her head against the chair trying to sleep. However, throughout the car ride her mind would continue to wander back to the words TK last said to her in the car. And slowly, but surely, something strange began to stir in her heart.

As the car parked in front of his house, TK looked over to his side to see Kari finally asleep in the passenger seat. Before waking her up, he took a peek at her sleeping figure and brushed the back of his hand against her face. He smiled and admired how cute she was. Even after 5 years, she had not lost the innocent beauty that she carried with her. If anything, she had only become more beautiful in his eyes.

"I really meant it Kari. I'm so glad you're back here with me," he whispered under his breath. "I missed you a lot." And with that he gently woke her up from her nap. "Wake up Kari! We're home."

**A/N**: Sora is TK and Kari's age in this story. I'm not a huge fan of Yolei and Sora was always one of my favorite digidestined and seemed like an amazing friend. She's a sweetheart. :)

So that's all for chapter 1! It was pretty long. 5k words! I rocked this chapter in one day like a champ. What can I say, I'm inspired. Sorry if there are grammar errors. I proofread it 3 times but I'm prone to typo a lot, especially with such a long chapter. Hope you liked it and please review!


	2. Chapter 2 The Biggest Jerk Ever

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Digimon. :(

**A/N: **Thank you to everyone who reviewed. I really appreciate it and was def encouraged to work harder!

So something about the Doc Manager and I don't get along because every time I try to type in breaks into my story, they disappear and now you guys don't know when time has passed so I'm gonna have to make it more clear in my writing for you guys. :( I'm really sorry about that.

I'll probably try to mess with the HTML to get it to work because clearly I'm a prohacker. That's why I'm writing stories on this site and not playing with SQL databases and junk. (My friends are CS majors. I'm not. I'm a nothing major. Working on it…)

**What happened last chapter**: Present timeline: Kari gets owned by her fiancé on her wedding day and runs away. Meets TK at the park where they first met and he decides to help her out…today we will learn how exactly he will help her. ;) Past timeline: It's the first day of TK and Kari's sophomore year of high school and they meet for the first time. Not much has developed here yet.

Chapter 2 will focus a lot more on the past and each of their family situations. I brought up Kari's super vaguely in the first chapter. If you want to go and read it again I guess you could haha.

I'll stop talking now! Sorry I talk so much. ^^;;

* * *

**8 years ago ~ August 2004**

Kari drooped her head as she made her way to the Dean's office. She felt like a major scrub. Mr. Watanabe couldn't be any more pissed at her for arriving ten minutes late to the first day of class. She couldn't understand why someone would become a teacher when he hated kids. 'Seriously. You can't even be happy on the first day of school," she thought bitterly to herself. 'If I didn't run into that guy earlier, I would have only been a couple minutes late and not in as much trouble. If I ever run into him again, I swear, he is so going to get it—'

"Oh, Kari! I'm so glad you're here! Late again I see." It was Miss Kobayashi, the dean's secretary. Kari had become well acquainted with her last year after coming to school late so many times.

"Good morning Miss Kobayashi," Kari sighed. "I was so caught up in picking out this morning's outfit and ended up losing track of time. First impressions ya know?"

"Don't worry. You look cute," she said to her with a wink. "However I guess you do have to worry about me sending you to the Dean's office right now…"

"Please, Miss Kobayashi, you can't do this me! I don't know if you know this," she began with a mockingly serious tone, "but I think the dean is a monster. Like I swear, he has some crazy ability to transform when no one's looking and eat people...or something like that! I'm terrified. So, if you would ever be so kind as to grant me your mercy on this beautiful day—" Kari was practically on her knees at the moment.

Miss Kobayashi responded with a laugh, "Kari, you are as silly as ever. Nice to know you haven't changed too much over the summer."

"Please don't let me see that monster!" she pleaded with a pout.

"Alright, alright, Kari. I know it's the first day of class so I'll let you off the hook as long as you do me a favor."

Kari's face instantly brightened at this. "Omigosh! Yes! I do! I agree! Anything for you, my most favorite secretary in the world," Kari exclaimed as she enveloped her in a tight hug. The other secretaries in the office began to stare at the site with puzzled looks on their faces.

"Great! So as you are fully aware. Today is the first day of school which means we have a lot of new transfer students! Usually a week before, we have students who volunteer to show the transfer students around the school. Unfortunately, one of our volunteers couldn't make it due to a scheduling conflict, so she's getting that fixed right now. Since that's happening, one of our transfer students doesn't have anyone to show him around anymore."

"So basically, you want me to be a replacement volunteer?"

"Yep!"

"And you're going to help me get away with being late?" Kari was getting really excited at this.

"Of course! You are doing me a favor after all."

Kari couldn't take it anymore. She began to burst out with joy. "Sweet deal! I'll do it. I won't let you down Miss Kobayashi! I'm gonna be the best tour guide you have ever seen and you'll never want to send me to the Dean's office ever again." Everyone was staring now. The level of amusement that Kari was producing at the moment was far too high for anyone to turn away from. "So, where is he? Huh? Is he right outside of here? Is he at the school entrance? Miss Kobayashi, I will never forget about this! Seriously, girl, you are the best!"

"He's in the Dean's office," she responded curtly. Kari's face fell.

"You're evil," she stated before promptly turning her back against the secretary and walking away towards the door of the Dean's office.

"Bye Kari! Have a good first day of school!"

* * *

"So, Mr. Takeru Takaishi. Welcome to Tokyo. I see you moved here from Kyoto. How was the move in? Getting used to how crowded it is here?"

"It's not too bad here, Dean Matsumoto," TK replied with a polite smile.

"Mr. Matsumoto is fine."

"Well, Mr. Matsumoto, move-in wasn't too bad. I actually really like how crowded it is here in Tokyo. It's really exciting and a girl actually ran into me on the way to school this morning!" TK recalled the scene in his mind and silently laughed to himself. He was hoping he would be able to see her again.

"Oh really now? I can't imagine anyone who could be so clumsy as to pull off a stunt like that." Actually he could. Last year on the first day of school, a very troublesome and clumsy girl had run into him and spilled coffee all over his shirt. Luckily, the coffee was no longer hot but it took weeks for him to get the stains out. From then on, he swore to make her high school career as awful as he was allowed to without getting himself in trouble.

A small knock was heard at the door. "Come in," Mr. Matsumoto called. He sighed as the door opened and he realized who it was. Speak of the Devil. And of course she was here on the first day of school. "Good morning, Miss Kamiya. What brings you here to my office today? Really. I wonder."

Kari sheepishly slipped through the door and awkwardly smiled at her dean. "Oh hey! What's up Monstermoto—oh I mean Mr. Matsumoto. Fine day, don't you think!"

Mr. Matsumoto grumbled at this. He knew her slip up was no accident. "Yes Miss Kamiya. It is quite a fine day isn't it? A fine day for you to get a detention for being late to class, am I right?"

Kari faked a gasp. "Ouch! How mean of you Mr. Matsumoto. Always expecting the worst out of me, I see."

"You always give me a reason to." Kari tried her best to ignore that comment. She couldn't do it.

"Well, contrary to popular belief," and by popular she meant just him and his own opinion because she was certain he believed he was all that and more, "I wasn't late. I'm a last-minute volunteer to help this poor transfer student right here—omigosh!" Kari's eyes widened as she looked over to who the transfer student was.

"Hey there! Long time no see." It was him. Of course it was him. It was the boy from that very morning that she swore to give a piece of her mind to if she ever saw him again. He smiled at her and that was all it took. He was too cute to stay mad at.

"Hi. I'm Kari Kamiya. It's nice to properly meet you and…sorry about this morning," she greeted with an embarrassed smile.

TK chuckled at her embarrassment. It was cute of her. "It's no problem. I'm Takeru Takaishi. It's nice to properly meet you too."

"Of course! See Mr. Matsumoto? " she directed her attention back to the dean. "You can't expect me to up to no good all the time. Now you've shown your true colors already to this poor transfer student. Tsk tsk." Kari shook her head at him in disapproval. "C'mon, let's go Takeru! I'll show you around!" TK stood up to follow Kari, not before giving an apologetic smile to their dean followed by a silent sorry.

Mr. Matsumoto sighed as he watched the two leave his office until he decided to take once last shot at Kari. He wouldn't let her win this one.

"And Kari?" Kari turned her head to look at her dean before exiting his office. "I'm a little hurt that I'm not the only person in the world you love running into in the mornings." At his comment, Kari turned bright red and gasped in horror. "At least you didn't ruin his shirt right?"

Kari shrank. She couldn't believe this was happening right in front of Takeru. And with that, she slammed Mr. Matsumoto's door shut in embarrassment and frustration.

* * *

"So…Monstermoto, huh? Are you this disrespectful to all your deans and teachers?" TK asked as they made it into the cafeteria portion of the tour.

"No. Just him really. We don't exactly have the best history together I guess…"

"Oh. I'm sorry your relationship with him isn't working out. I wish the best for you two." Kari rolled her eyes and smiled at his sarcastic comment before continuing on with the tour.

"And this here, Takeru—"

"TK." Kari gave him a confused look. "I actually go by TK. It's the nickname I grew up with," he said with a shy smile. Hopefully she didn't think his nickname was too childish.

"TK? I like it," she cheerfully replied causing TK to smile back at her. "So, TK, this is the cafeteria. It's not too big but most people like to eat outside. The landscape here isn't too bad I guess. And like your typical high-school cafeteria, I guess it's somewhat cliquey."

"What clique are you in?" TK asked.

"Wait, what?" Kari was taken aback by his question. She wasn't expecting him to want to know about her.

"I just wanted to get to know you better. I mean aren't you the wonderful last-minute volunteer who took pity on me and gave me a school tour? You can't be too bad of a person."

Kari lightly giggled at this before continuing her tour, "I don't know. I don't really belong in a clique. My friends and I are all over the place with our interests and stuff. We grew up together in the same neighborhood so we've always stuck together. How about you? What kind of guy were you at your last school?"

"I was a jock."

"No way." Kari couldn't believe he was actually a jock. He seemed too nice. Then again, he definitely had the looks of popular kid.

"No. Not really. I was on the basketball team, I guess, but I didn't really have any friends. Just a couple was enough for me. Otherwise, I was pretty much a loner."

"Really? I can't believe someone as nice as you wouldn't have any friends…" she replied with a sad face. She really couldn't believe it. It didn't make any sense to her.

"I'm really not that nice Kari, but thanks."

"Well, I mean…if you want…" Kari blushed as she continued talking, "I can be your first friend here?" Kari inwardly hit herself on the head. She was usually not this forward with strangers aside from the couple times she had run into people on the street. However, something inside of her really wanted to get to know this person more.

TK smiled at this and replied warmly, "If that's really what you want, Kari."

* * *

**Present ~ June 2012**

That was the memory of how she had met him for the second time as Kari washed her face in the bathroom. Being almost alone in TK's house, Kari's mind had begun to wander while trying to forget about her present situation as much as possible. Being in his house had forced him to become the topic of discussion in her mind. Kari laughed at herself as she remembered the days that she fought with Mr. Matsumoto. 'Gosh, I was a terrible kid, wasn't I? But he so asked for it.'

A knock could be heard from the bedroom door followed by TK's voice, "Can I come in?"

"Yeah sure," she responded back to him. She took one more good look at her bare face and shrugged. There really wasn't a need to look pretty for him. As she made her way out of the bathroom and into bedroom, she was surprised to see TK completely suited up. She wasn't going to lie. He looked great. But she was definitely not going to let him know so she looked away and pretended to look out of it.

"Don't even try, Kari. I saw you staring," he teased with a smirk on his face.

Kari's face instantly brightened at his comment. "I was not!"

"It's okay. You don't have to admit to me that you wish all this was yours," he continued to pester her with a wink. "I saw the look in your eyes before you turned away. Then you tried to cover it up by looking like you were zoning out in your own world but I know that's impossible when I'm incredibly irresistible at the moment."

"OMIGOSH STOP! Do you seriously not realize how messed up of a person you are? Good Lord…" At this, TK began to burst out laughing with himself. To him, nothing was more hilarious than a pissed off, angry Kari. "You know," she continued, "being in your house brings back a lot of memories."

TK's eyebrow rose with a smirk. "And what memories are we talking about, exactly?"

"I don't know, the memories where we used to be friends?" she began to sass him.

"Oh right. There was a time when we were on some pretty decent terms. Life was pretty boring then."

"Really? I like to think those were some pretty darn dandy days. You know, the days where you didn't make fun of me excessively, wreck my stuff, and make my life hell?"

TK pretended to look regretful as he continued to annoy her. "Awww Kari. Was I really that bad to you? I'm sure your memories are just twisted."

"No. I like to think my head is on pretty straight, thank you very much. You're the twisted one. You went from the nicest guy in the world to like the biggest dick ever. I trusted you so much but you turned out to be not so trustworthy after all. Just thinking about it makes me wonder why I'm at your place again."

"So tell me, what memories did you have again? Sounds like you just had a super flashback of all of high school."

"Oh…my bad," she apologized. "I was just thinking about the time we first met."

"Oh those times when you gracefully fell in my arms. Those were some pretty great memories you were having there," TK said with a wink causing Kari to smack him on the arm. It had been way too long since she'd done that. Three hours of no violence was too much for her to handle. However, this only encouraged TK so he continued to pester her even further. "Oh, and wasn't there that one time you did the same thing with our dean? Matsumoto, was it? I heard it was a really good story! You should tell me all about it."

"Omigosh, please don't remind me about that. Seriously, it was the most embarrassing thing of my life," she said shamefully with her hand against her face. "Let's just not think about school. I need to get my life sorted right now."

"Oh right, that reminds me," TK took some articles of clothing he had placed earlier on the bed and handed it to her. "Sorry. I know these will be kind of big on you but it was the best I could do for you right now. I would take you shopping right now but I've got to meet up with a business partner soon."

Kari took the shirt and basketball shorts from TK's hands. "These should be fine, don't worry about it. So is that what you do these days?" Kari asked as she made her way to the bed and sat down. TK followed suit and sat down next to her. "It's been five years. I mean it's not news to either of us that we've had a bad past together but it doesn't hurt to catch up. What have you been doing with your life?"

"Well let's see," he began. "I finished college in two and half years with a double major in business and kinesiology. I've been working on starting up a business that sells clothing, shoes, and athletic equipment for basketball."

"You what?" she responded in astonishment. She felt like a complete failure sitting next to him with the amount of work she _hadn't_ accomplished with her life. "How did you even finish college so quickly with _two _majors?"

"I tested out of a lot of classes, took classes over the summer, got my university to let me take more than the max hours."

"Wow did you even have a life?"

"What did you have to live for in college?"

"Gosh, I don't know. I didn't just study. I tried to be happy too!"

"Really now. So what have you been doing for the past five years?"

Kari wasn't sure she knew how she was going to be able to tell the truth after hearing how successful TK had been for the past five years, so instead, she decided to lie and joke around to stall her reality a little bit longer. "Well, I ended up finishing art school with a design degree after a year," she proclaimed with a proud face.

"Wow. One year, huh?"

"You bet! I was way too good so they decided I didn't need to waste my time at school anymore and handed me my diploma right away. What can I say? You should learn from me, TK."

TK gave her an amused look before responding back to her, "And what exactly am I supposed to learn from you after hearing an obvious lie?"

"Being awesome, of course! And how dare you accuse me of lying? Remember who finished school in less than half the time you took? That's right me. And you better suck it!" She knew she was being ridiculous but she couldn't let TK be the one to do the teasing all the time.

"Wow, Kari! I didn't know you were so smart! Actually, from what I remember, you were incredibly dumb in high school. You aren't the only one here that likes to reminisce about the good old days." Kari's face changed from proud to pissed in half a second. "So when were you going to tell me the truth about your life?"

"I can't believe you're still accusing me of lying. I seriously went through col—"

"So when were you going to tell me the truth about your life?" he rudely cut in without hesitation.

"Are you purposely trying to be rude with me he—"

"So when were you going to tell me the truth abou—"

"Okay! Okay! Fine I'll tell you!" this time it was Kari cutting TK off. She took a deep breath and exhaled before starting, "My life really hasn't been anything too special I guess. I finished college and got my degree in four years. I spent a few months trying to get a job but nobody seemed to really need me. I got offers for small jobs but nothing felt right. Then I got busy with the wedding…"

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, when I think about the dreams I have for a career, I don't want to be the person who designs the brochure for a company that nobody actually wants to read. I want to be the person whose art completely changes the direction and face of a company. You know what I mean?"

TK smiled at her after hearing this. "That's why I think you'd be perfect for the job."

Kari stared at him with a baffled expression. "I'd be perfect, what?"

"Kari," he said as he attempted to hold her hands tightly. Kari, however, did not like this and quickly pulled away with a glare. "Aww, c'mon Kar!"

"Just say it already!" she responded, arms folded across her chest with an irritated face.

"Fine, fine," he replied with a pout. "Kari, how would like to work for my company?"

"Me? Are you serious?" she asked incredulously.

"Of course! I actually just fired our last guy who was in charge of our company's advertising and design. The way he did things didn't match with the vision I had. It was hard because he was pretty good and a lot of people wanted him to stay, but it wasn't perfect. I want my company to succeed because it happened exactly the way it was meant to be, don't you agree?"

"Yeah I guess. So then what would be my job?"

"I need your imagination and ideas to help spur the other workers on the design team. You're going to create a new logo, choose new theme colors, oversee the designs of the new line of shoes, equipment, clothing—it's a big task, but I know you're perfectly capable of it.

Kari sat there in thought for a couple seconds until it hit her. This was exactly what she was waiting for. "I'll take it," she responded with confidence.

"Great!" TK exclaimed. "We'll sort out the details when I get home later, okay?"

"Yeah, sure. Sounds good. But wait."

"Yes?"

"This means we're going to be coworkers then…right?" she asked hesitantly. "So then that means I'll have to spend a lot of time with you right?"

"Is that a problem, Kar?" he asked with a wink.

"Yes. Especially if I have to work with you calling me that, you jerk!" Kari was beginning to fume at the thought of dealing with his ridiculous personality as a job.

"How about this. When I get home, we'll write up a contract that states that we'll promise to be respectful and professional when working together and not let our personal lives and past complications get in the way of our job. Deal?"

"So no 'Kar'?" she asked him with hope in her eyes.

TK pretended to sigh with great disappointment. "I guess not."

"Deal! Sounds great!" Kari stuck out her hand as TK firmly grasped her hand in his for a handshake. "Happy to work with you business partner!"

TK laughed at her adorableness and responded in agreement. "Happy to work with you Miss Kamiya. Oh, and Kari?"

"Yes?"

"Remind me to take you shopping later! I mean as cute as you look in an oversized tshirt and basketball shorts, I'm sure you won't want to go around looking like that forever."

"It's okay, I'll ask Sora to bring my clothes from my home."

"Aww. So you don't wanna go on a date with me?" he asked pretending to look hurt.

"Never. Being seen with you like that in public will be the end of me."

TK laughed at her silly fear before responding, "Please Kari. It's not like we're in high school. Who would recognize us? You never know. People might mistake us for a cute couple or something like they do in the movies before the guy and girl actually get together!"

"You're doing a horrible job of convincing me to go shopping with you. Don't you have a business deal to make? Get out of here!" she commanded and chucked her slipper at him.

"Alright, alright, I'm leaving!" and with that, TK left and closed the door behind him.

As the silence began to fill the room, Kari gave a long sigh as she fell backwards against the bed and began to let her mind wander to the past again. She really couldn't believe there was a time when he was actually a decent person.

* * *

**Past ~ October 2004**

The sound of the school bell went off as all the students in the hallways rushed into their classrooms to begin the next class period. As Kari made her way to her seat, Sora quickly rushed over to greet her best friend.

"So, Kari. How's your morning been so far?" Sora greeted cheerfully.

"Dude. Worst day ever. I ran out of pancakes at my house this morning. I'm gonna be so hungry later."

"Sucks."

"Seriously. First world problems."

"I know right?" Sora responded as they both laughed at their sarcastically overdramatic conversation until their teacher, Mr. Watanabe, burst into the room.

"Get in your seats, class. Sorry, I'm late. I had trouble printing out your new assignments," he said with his typical grumpy attitude.

Before rushing back to her seat, Sora quickly whispered to Kari, "Talk to you soon! I have to tell you something later!" Kari replied with a silent okay and wave.

As the new class assignment was passed around the room, Mr. Watanabe began to explain it, "Alright students. This is going to be a partner assignment. Choose wisely someone that won't slack off and make you do all the work."

Students began giving each other amused faces. Kari could hear one of the students behind her whispering to a classmate about what a huge joke their teacher was. Kari laughed to herself because she knew it was true. Nobody really cared about the assignments.

As Mr. Watanabe was explaining the paper to the class, Sora turned around in her seat and motioned Kari to check her phone. As Kari slyly slipped out her phone to check her texts, she looked back at Sora a faked an angry face at her.

"_Sorry Kari! I know you want to work with me but I'm gonna work with the cute boy sitting next me. We started talking recently and have been hitting it off. Sorry, again! I was going to tell you about him later, I swear!"_

Kari curtly responded with a, "_You suck._"A few seconds later, Kari looked down at her phone to see that Sora had already texted her back.

"_Love you, too! Why don't you ask that boy TK to be your partner? You two seem to be getting along. ;)"_

Kari scoffed at the thought of being ditched by Sora. As she looked over to TK who was staring outside of the window, Kari began to think about the past two months since she had met him. It was strange, really. Whenever she was able to talk to him, he was always very friendly; however, he had managed to keep himself at a distance from everyone in class. When he made the basketball team a month into school, people everywhere began to take notice of him and yet TK quietly brushed off everyone and chose to remain alone most of the time.

As most of the class was paired up for the paper, Kari noticed that TK was still sitting in his seat staring out the window refusing to approach anybody for the project. For some reason, she felt nervous going up to him but since he had already granted her his friendship two months ago, she decided that it would be alright. After taking a deep breath, Kari mustered up her courage and walked over to TK, taking the seat in front of his desk and faced him.

"Hi, TK!" she greeted cheerfully. "Wanna be my partner?"

TK turned his face to her with a surprised look on his face. Kari frowned inwardly at this after realizing he probably wasn't used to somebody approaching him to be his partner. Maybe he didn't like being lonely after all? Then again, if he wanted friends, he could have pursued them on his own since he was already admired by half the school for his basketball skills.

"Yeah," he replied with a small smile.

Kari smiled cheerfully at his reply. For some reason, she was suddenly really excited and couldn't wait to see him later.

* * *

After school, Kari walked around the front of the school where she and TK promised to meet up with each other. To her surprise, she saw him near the school gate talking to two guys, one with blonde hair and blue eyes like TK and another one with brown hair and brown eyes. She assumed they were his teammates by the way they were dressed. As Kari approached TK, all three of them turned their attention towards her as TK greeted her.

"Oh shoot! Got a girlfriend already, TK? She's cute!" teased the blonde one. "Guess what! Your boyfriend just got promoted to starting point guard by the coach. You should be proud of your man." The other brunette just stared at her as if he was nervous about something.

Kari stood there speechless and red in the face. TK saved her by brushing the boy's comments off coolly. "She's not my girlfriend. We have to work on a class assignment together."

"Oh really? Well in that case," the blonde boy came up to her and shook hands with Kari. "Hi! My name is Willis, nice to meet you!"

"Hi! I'm Kari. Nice to meet you too."

"By the way. All that stuff I said about TK just now? I mean he's okay I guess. I'm the starting shooting guard on the team! That means I get to shoot and score more points during games."

Kari smiled back at him awkwardly. She wasn't used to a basketball player trying to impress her. As Kari looked behind Willis, she noticed the other boy was still standing there nervously. She decided to be nice and greet him too.

"Hi! Nice to meet you!" she said with a wave.

Willis got out of the way and pushed his friend forward. "C'mon, Davis. Say hi to the pretty girl!"

Davis' face blushed at this as he stuck out his hand towards Kari, "Nice to meet you too."

Kari smiled reassuringly at him. She was flattered and found it sweet that such a good looking guy was nervous to meet her. After shaking his hand, she heard TK clear his throat.

"Anyways, Kari we've got to go. I have to do chores today too since I have practice tomorrow. Ready to go?" TK asked as he motioned her with his hand that he wanted to leave.

"Yeah, sure!" As the two of them started to leave, Kari turned around to say goodbye to the other two boys she had just met. "Bye Willis! Bye Davis! Nice to meet you guys!"

As Willis and Davis watched Kari and TK leave, Willis turned to Davis and said, "Dibs."

* * *

"So when'd you get yourself a new pair of friends, huh TK?"

"They're not my friends," he responded curtly.

"Of course they're not," she mocked him as she rolled her eyes.

"They really aren't. They were talking to me about basketball and practice tomorrow. I'm not really a fan of people like Willis."

Kari thought about it and how Willis seemed somewhat obnoxious and full of himself when they first met. Other than that, he didn't seem too bad. "I don't know, TK. Maybe you're being quick to judge? You never know. He might actually be a nice guy."

"Suit yourself if you want to be involved with a guy like that, but I would stay away if I were you."

Kari laughed at TK's seriousness. It didn't seem like too big of a deal to her. "Well what do you think about Davis?"

"I don't know. He's alright. He hasn't given me a reason to hate him yet."

"Wow TK!" she began to tease him. "I didn't realize you were so picky about your friends! I'm kind of flattered that you're even willing to talk to me."

TK smiled at her. To be honest, he wasn't completely sure why he seemed okay with letting her in just a little into his life. "Hey Kari. Want to get some ice cream? There's a place on the way to my house."

Kari piped with excitement at the thought of getting ice cream. "Omigosh. Yes, please! I swear, I could eat strawberry ice cream all day."

TK laughed at her childish reaction. She was too adorable.

* * *

"So how much farther 'til we get to your house?" Kari asked while happily eating her ice cream.

TK gave her a slightly uncomfortable look as he replied, "Uh, we've kinda been here for a couple minutes."

Kari looked at him confused, "What are you talking about? I haven't seen a house. We've been walking next to this wall for—wait a minute—" She looked up ahead and there was gate. "No way." She ran towards the gate and TK chased after her.

"HOLY BALLS," he heard her scream. As he caught up to her, she looked at him with a shocked look on her face. Before Kari was a massive estate with a finely furnished lawn and a house that seemed to go on for almost a block. Well, it didn't really, but compared to own house, she felt like she lived in a cardboard box. "So your family was the one that bought this mansion? Good Lord, this house is huge. I nearly dropped my ice cream looking at this place. What does your dad do? Save lives and procure massive amounts of funds for being awesome or something?" Kari stood there in place and stared dumbfounded at the size of his house until she realized TK was walking ahead of her towards the front entrance.

"He's a business man, I guess, if you want to call him that," TK replied with a distant look.

"Wow. Is he the owner of like Toaster Strudel or something? Why'd you guys move then? If you're successful in the business world, wouldn't you want to stay put?"

"Not necessarily. He wanted to reach out to larger audiences here in Tokyo, I guess. Did you want a tour?"

"Yes!" she replied almost too excitedly causing TK to give her an amused look. "What? I've never been in a house so big before."

* * *

"And here's the last stop of the tour, my room." After going through what seemed like the biggest maze of Kari's life, they finally made it to TK's room. "Sorry, it's kind of messy. I was gonna do chores later today," he apologized as he slowly started to pick things up from the ground."

"Nah, it's cool. I feel like rooms should always be kind of messy. It is your personal space after all. A mess makes it feel more personal," she reassured him with a small laugh.

"Yeah, that's true. But right now, I'm sharing my personal space with you so I'll try to clean it up a bit right now. You can sit on my bed or look around if you want."

Kari decided to sit down on his bed after walking around so much. She looked over to the dresser right next to his bed and noticed something interesting. "Hey TK?"

"Yes?" TK responded as he got off the floor to stop cleaning and walked over to her. "What's up?"

"What is that?" she asked as she pointed over to the dresser.

"What's what?"

"That storybook. I've seen it in every single room in this house," she noted. During the tour, she noticed that there was always a table with the same storybook in every room in the house—even the work-out room and the laundry room.

"Oh," he stared at the book with a warm smile. "It was my mother's. It was her favorite story that she used to read to me all the time when I was a child."

"Oh, I see…" Kari was about to ask where his mother was but was hesitant to pry into his life.

"Want to start working? My room's pretty clean now. You can use my bed. I'll work on the floor," he said as he grabbed his bag and laptop.

After working for only an hour and a half, they were almost done. Kari couldn't believe the short amount of time it had taken them to work on a paper. She decided to take a mental note to ask TK to be her partner for projects more often. To put it bluntly, he was a genius and unbelievably efficient.

"Did you finish looking through the paper? See anything you want to change about it?" TK asked Kari, as he looked up from his computer as she was browsing through the assignment on his bed.

"Nope. It looks pretty good to me," she responded with a thumbs up aimed at him. "I still can't believe how quickly we got through this. You seriously are really good at this thing they call school."

TK smiled at her and tried to brush off her flattery. "I just have to get some chores done. Dinner's soon and I have to put something on the table before Dad gets home or else he gets angry. I just don't know how it's gonna happen with everything else I have to do…"

"How much work do you have?"

"Well I've gotta vacuum his room, finish cleaning my room a bit more, do both my laundry and his." Kari began to notice how nervous he was. He seemed a little bit too nervous for a son who had to do chores for his father. "It doesn't sound like too much work at first until you realize how massive his room is and laundry always take a long time and I probably could just put a pizza in a microwave but he might get upset—"

"I'll cook for you," Kari said, cutting him off.

"Wait…really? You would do that for me?" TK asked with a surprised look.

"I don't know why you're freaking out so much about chores but if it really means that much to you, I'll help take care of cooking for you. One less thing for you to worry about," she comforted him with a warm smile. It was the least she could do for him for being such a productive project partner.

"Thanks, Kari," he thanked her and held his hand out to help her off his bed. However, as TK pulled Kari up, Kari lost control of her footing and slammed against him, causing them to fall in a position they had both recently found themselves in two months ago.

Kari instantly blushed as she realized she was in his arms on the ground once again. She raised her head from his chest and immediately began her apology, "I'm so sorry I'm so heavy! I really need to stop doing this to you."

Instead of the angered expression she was expecting, TK began to crack up as he laid on the floor. "I'm glad to know that I get more attention from you than Matsumoto does in these kind of positions. And don't worry Kari, you're not heavy at all. If anything, you're extremely light since I ended up flinging you from my bed."

Kari looked down at his face with a grateful smile, "Nah. You're just really strong," she complimented him as she patted his arm. "And you should use those arms to get your chores started!" she joked as she rolled off of TK. "I'm going to the kitchen now to see what I can make. Any preferences?" she asked as she started to walk out of his room.

"Nope. As long as it's made well, anything is good," he responded as he watched her walk out of his room. He caught himself smiling oddly at her and then immediately frowned. At that moment, TK began to realize that there was definitely something special growing for her and he wasn't too sure how he felt about that.

* * *

"Hello, this is Takeru Takaishi speaking," TK answered after picking up his cell phone.

"Takeru, this is your father," came the voice from the phone. TK glanced at the clock to check the time. It was 5:00 PM. It was strange for his father to be calling at this time. "Listen, I had to call you from a payphone. I'm sure that big brain of yours can imagine a situation why I have to considering what I do."

TK sighed as he continued his conversation with his father, "What do you want?"

"Just thought you should know that I sealed a deal early today and I'll be coming home earlier than usual. The house better be clean and presentable when I'm back, you hear?"

"Yeah, I'm almost done, don't worry," he assured him as he walked past the kitchen and saw Kari cooking cheerfully. He smiled at her and how adorable she was. The scene felt so right as he watched her. His mind was brought back to the current situation as his father called out to him on the phone.

"Takeru? Why aren't you answering me?"

"Oh sorry, Dad," TK apologized as he shook his head and turned around to walk away. He realized it would be best to stay away from the kitchen until dinner was finished. "What was it you were asking me?"

"What's going on? Do you have a friend over or something? You never have people over."

"It's nobody, Dad," TK lied. There was no point in telling him about Kari because he knew his father didn't actually care.

"Right. Anyways, can you make sure the lights outside of the house are turned off for me? I need that for something later unless you want to be moving again."

"Yeah, I'll take care of it." TK noticed that the stove fan had been turned off and Kari had begun washing the cooking utensils. "Look, Dad. I've got to go now. I have to finish up this last bit of laundry, okay? I'll see you later."

"See you soon, Takeru," his father responded right before TK hung up.

* * *

"Wow. This is some legit food, Kari. I'm really impressed," TK complimented her which resulted in a huge smile by Kari. It felt like an amazing reward after quickly blasting through his project and chores.

"Of course! Thanks for being such a good partner," Kari said as she began to prepare a plate for his father to eat for when he got home later.

"Don't worry. School has really never been such a big deal to me."

"Cooking has never been such a big deal to me either. I never knew you were so smart though. You never try in class. You never came across as the genius type to me."

"I study a lot on my own I guess. I like to teach myself things. It's more satisfying to me than learning things in class. I just show up because I have to and it's a much better place to be at than home."

His last comment saddened Kari so she decided to change the subject. "So…uh, why exactly is it that you keep people at such a distance? Don't want people to judge you for your money or something? Or do you just hate people?" Kari inwardly smacked herself on the head. Her changed subject was nowhere near better than the last. She decided to swallow her feelings of frustration towards herself by quickly consuming the food on her plate.

TK stared off as he responded to her question, "No one really seems worth the trouble to become friends with and when I do find people, I'm worried they won't find me worth the trouble to befriend."

Kari tilted her head in confusion. His response confused her and seemed somewhat…extreme. But before she could ask any further, loud voices and curses could be heard outside. Immediately, TK's face changed into an intense glare as he stared towards the entrance of the house.

"Uh…TK. What's going on?" Kari asked him with a worried face.

"My father's home," he responded with a serious expression. His face scared her. She had never seen such expressions on his face before. The sound of the door bursting open could be heard as various voices of loud, obnoxious men filled the house.

"Why does it sound like your Dad has multiple voices?" Kari asked as her worried face began to pale into slight fear. As the men began to pile into the kitchen, TK stood up from his seat and glared at them.

"Hey there, Takeru! Long time no see. It smells pretty good in here. Does it mean you don't suck at cooking anymore?" one of the men mocked. Like the rest of them, he was huge and looked like he was up to no good.

Another one spoke up and looked at Kari, "Wow! Is this your girl? She's really pretty," he taunted as he walked over to Kari.

"Stay away from her," TK spoke sternly to him.

However, the second man ignored him and put his arm around Kari's shoulder. TK looked at her face and realized how uncomfortable she looked. He began to feel guilty. This was all his fault and he felt terrible. He should have known his father's gang was coming. "Why don't you ditch Takeru and hang out with me upstairs? I promise I'm a lot more fun to play with—"

"Don't touch her," TK demanded without losing his glare once at the man. "Let's go, Kari," he insisted as he took her hand in his and dragged her away from the men.

"Awww. Takeru, you're no fun at all!" teased another man as TK stormed out with Kari.

As they made their way towards the door, Kari noticed a man by the entrance. He was well built and classier looking than the rest of the men with the same hair and eyes as TK. However, his eyes gave off a dark and scary feel unlike TK's that forced her to look away from his face.

"You better be home by 10, Takeru," his father commanded him as he leaned against the wall next to the door with his arms crossed. Kari noticed that his demeanor was far from fatherly. His interaction with his son felt more like that of a boss to his employee.

"I won't be home as long as those freaks are in this house," TK spat.

"Don't worry, they won't be here long. We're going to have a talk when you get home."

"Whatever," TK coldly replied as he took Kari away from his house.

* * *

Kari stood behind TK staring at his slumped back as he leaned his hand against a pole. The sun had already set and it was completely dark out with the exception of the street lights. After walking away from TK's house for ten minutes, they found themselves in the park where they had met two months ago. However, the whole way there had been in silence. Kari began to worry as TK continued to do nothing but stare at the ground. She knew he was feeling guilty and she wanted to do something to make him feel better.

She decided to reach over and put her hand on his back, "Don't feel bad TK. I'm alright. Really!"

TK stood up straight and looked at her with an apologetic smile, "You know, Kari, you are one silly girl."

"I'm a what—" but before she could finish TK embraced her in a hug.

"I'm sorry, Kari." Kari froze in place unable to hug him back. She wasn't used to being held by another guy the way he was holding her. Being hugged by her brother and father was a completely different experience from this.

"TK…"

TK released her from his hug and held her with his hands on her shoulders. He looked into her eyes and continued to speak, "I've screwed up in more ways than one tonight and I wanted to apologize for it. I'm sorry they came. I should have known and I would have walked you home earlier if I had known. I'm sorry I couldn't do enough to protect you when he was talking to you like that…I swear it's never going to happen again. And I'm sorry I couldn't be strong for you just now and you had to be the one to cheer me up. This is all my fault and it's my responsibility to be strong for you."

"It's okay, TK! Really. We're friends. We've got to be strong for each other," she assured him with a smile on her face.

TK gave her a sad smile at that comment, "Kari, let's talk." He took her hand in his and walked her over to the swings. After helping her to her own swing, he took the one next to her. He looked over to her from his swing and continued talking, "There's something you should know. I'm telling you this because I can tell from the kind of person you are, you would never try to screw my family over."

"I promise I won't," she said while giving him a reassuring smile.

"Thanks, Kari," he said as he looked down at the ground nervously and kicked a couple woodchips. "I'm sure you can tell after meeting my father's so called _friends_ that he's kind of a shady person." He sighed and hesitated before he began talking again, "My dad's a drug lord. A very successful one too. He hit it big where we used to live and decided to move to Tokyo to expand his business. That's why we're so rich."

Kari wasn't exactly sure how to react. "Oh…that's…nice I guess," she responded awkwardly.

"It's okay, Kari. I'm not expecting you to say anything profound, really," he said to make her feel better. He began to stare off into the distance and continued to talk, "I hate it. It started when my mother died when I was eight. My father lost all his motivation to work hard at his job and ended up getting fired. He began to turn to drugs and alcohol to numb his pain and in the end, he became a dealer. My father is a smart man and so he was able to turn himself into a very successful dealer. My older brother finished college a couple years ago and has cut off family connections ever since. He doesn't want to be related to something like that. I plan to follow him someday." TK sighed and then looked at Kari's concerned face. "I'm sorry Kari. For venting to you about this and everything."

Kari looked at him with a worried face. She knew that without many friends, TK didn't really have anyone to tell his problems to. "It's okay, TK. My family is far from perfect too. Wanna hear?"

TK gave her a warm smile, "Of course."

Kari began to share her family history as she rocked back and forth slowly on the swing with her toes planted on the ground. "Well I have an older brother, too. He graduated from college a couple years ago but he's working in America so I never see him anymore. He had no choice. It was the only place where he could find a job that would pay enough money to support my parents who are in the hospital right now…"

"Oh, Kari. I'm so sorry." TK's problems suddenly seemed slightly not as awful.

"Oh no! It's okay. I'm just glad they're still alive. My parents were doing a project in Africa as a part of my Dad's work. My mom came to help him out and they both ended up with some rare virus. Since it's so rare, doctors still aren't too sure how to cure them. They've been fighting it for a year now and it's been tough on my family financially since they're digging into my college funds now—not that I really need to go to college. I'm sure that matter will take care of itself but I don't know…It's just been hard seeing my parents like that. I want to care for them but there's so little I can do and I feel like I've been forced to grow up so much." Kari sighed. As she looked up, she was surprised to see TK no longer in his swing next to her but standing in front of her with his hand held out to her. Kari took his hand and stood up. In the back of her head, she was relieved that there was no repeat of history and she was not laying on top of him on the ground.

"It's okay, Kari. I've had to grow up a lot too and face a harsh reality about the world a lot sooner than most kids. But we have each other, right? We'll be strong for each other. We are friends aren't we? Like you said, friends gotta be strong for one another."

Kari gave him a warm smile before responding, "Yeah. We gotta."

* * *

**Present ~ June 2012**

Kari's eyes shot open at the sound of her cell phone ring tone going off. As she looked over at her phone's screen and realized Sora was calling, she was immediately upset at herself and guilty for forgetting to call her sooner.

"Hello?" Kari spoke as she answered the phone.

"Kari! Are you okay? How are you doing? Are you feeling better? I've been so worried about you," Sora spoke frantically. It was obvious that she was concerned for her best friend.

"I'm doing alright, Sora. Sorry I didn't call you sooner. I know it's already 10. How did things go after I left?" Kari was nervous to hear her friend's reply but she needed to know.

"Everyone was pretty understanding. I explained the situation and people seemed really worried about you. I talked to your parents and they said they trusted I would take care of you. They also said when you're ready to face them again, you can go visit them at the hospital."

"Thanks, Sora. I owe you big time for taking care of everything. My parents weren't super mad were they?"

"Not sure. They looked a bit disappointed but I can't say they were disappointed at you. You'll visit them soon, won't you?"

"Of course I will. I hope my wedding failure isn't going to be too hard on them," Kari spoke with worry. Her parents were already getting weak. She felt selfish thinking about how her situation may have made their condition worse.

"Don't worry, Kari. Things are going to be okay. So where are you at right now?" Sora asked.

"Please don't freak out when I tell you this, but I'm at TK's house," Kari said as she prepared herself for Sora to freak out.

"Oh really? That's awesome, Kari!" Sora said with excitement. Of all people, Sora knew TK would be able to take care of her the best.

"What?" It was not the response she was expecting.

"Uh…I mean. Are things alright? You guys aren't fighting too much, are you?" Sora asked, trying to cover herself up.

"Eh. Same old fighting. He's actually helping me out a lot, though I hate to admit it. He also got me a job already."

"Seriously? You've lived with this guy for a few hours and he already got you a job? Talk about a miracle worker. Must be fate or something, huh?"

"I guess you could look at it that way. By the way, could you do me a favor, Sora?" Kari asked.

"What's up?"

"Do you think you could go to my house and get some clothes for me? All I have is my wedding dress and TK's tshirts and shorts. The look gets old after a while."

Sora laughed at her friend before responding, "Of course. Just text me his address and I'll drop some clothes off for you after work. I'm sure you're going to want to stay away from people for a while right?"

"Yeah, I don't know how long I'm going to be here," Kari said with a sigh. It was true. She needed to recover from what had just happened to her and figure out the new job situation. "Hopefully I don't have to stay here too long. I don't know how much of TK I can stand. He drives me crazy, sometimes."

"Of course, Kari," Sora said sarcastically and laughed to herself. She knew Kari was unable to see how adorable they were when they fought.

"Alright, I gotta go, Sora. I have to sleep soon. I'm super exhausted."

"Sure thing. I'll talk to you later, Kari! Feel better!"

"Thanks, Sora. Bye!" After hanging up, Kari sat on the bed and looked around the room. She stared at the desk in the room and noticed a familiar book lying on the table. As she walked over and picked it up, she heard the door open. She turned around with the book in her hand and saw TK in the doorway.

"Hey, I'm back. Was that Sora on the phone?" TK asked.

"Yep! She's going to drop off some clothes for me tomorrow. Just thought you should know."

"Cool. I'll text her my address later," TK responded. Kari gave him a strange look and was about to ask how he had her number but was cut off from the opportunity as TK began to change the subject. "Checking out that book?"

"Yeah. I remember it from your old mansion you used to have back in high school. There was one in every room. You said it was your late mother's favorite story, right?" Kari asked as she recalled the facts from the dream she just had only moments ago. She was still trying to process why she was having flashbacks in her sleep.

TK flashed her a smirk as he sat on the bed, "Want me to read it to you?" he asked as he patted his lap with both hands and shot her a wink.

"You're kidding me," she responded curtly. TK got up from the bed and walked toward her. "There's no way I'm going to sit on your—" Before she could finish speaking, TK had already pulled her over and sat her on his lap on the bed with the story book in his hands, arms around her waist and head over her shoulder.

"Isn't it almost your bed time? Be a good girl, Kari, and let me read you a bed time story, okay?" For some reason, Kari could not find her voice to object. Something about being in his lap kept her from being able to fight against him as she sat there and waited for him to begin the story. At least being held by him in such a manner was somewhat comfortable…

"Like you said, this is my mother's favorite story, so you better listen up, Kar!" TK teased. "Alright. Let's begin, _The Boy and the Little Light_."

"This is too weird," Kari sighed in defeat. Being read a story couldn't hurt too much though—as long as no one ever got word of it.

"Dude, lighten up. Let's learn to appreciate the world for once, why don't we?" he said with a huge grin on his face.

"Yeah, let's just get this over with, please."

TK chuckled as he began to read to her.

"_Once upon a time, in a world where the sun never rose and every plain and terrain of the earth was filled with darkness, there was a kingdom whose people were much like the people of our world. However, because of the darkness that consumed its world, so too did the people of the kingdom consume this darkness in their hearts. Though they lived and breathed like normal human beings, they lived as people who only knew of sadness, brokenness, and death._

"_In this dark world, a boy lived alone with his mother in a small house within the kingdom. Though he was a small boy, he had a big and heavy heart that always desired for something more than what his eyes allowed him to see. He was curious about everything and had a strong will. He often was one to stand up and say something, usually out of place, but despite his naïve view on life, the motives of his heart were pure._

"_One day, as he was going out to buy food for his mother, he met a pretty girl at the market and asked if she wanted to play with him. However, the pretty girl said she would not play with him because she was not sure of his intentions. To prove his intentions were good, she said that if he was able to find a present for her that he believed was more valuable than gold, she would spend time to play with him. The boy agreed to this and after dinner, he left the kingdom to search far and wide for a present that was more valuable than gold. _

"_After walking through the prairies and along the rivers, the boy finally made it to the mountains. As the boy traveled around the mountains for a few days, he came upon a cave that had an eerie feel to it that felt completely foreign from his world. There was a sense of warmth and looking into the cave made his eyes grow smaller. As he traveled deeper into the cave, the warmth continued to cover his body until finally, he found something miraculous at the innermost part of the cave. It was truly unlike anything he had ever seen in his life—in fact, it was like life itself. At the dead-end of the cave stood a lit candle inside of a lamp that burned bright and seemed to melt the coldest parts of the boy's heart._

"_As the boy picked up the candle from the handle of the lamp, he walked outside of the cave and for the first time ever, his perspective on everything he thought he believed about the world had changed. Every time he put the lamp next to something, new colors began to form and his idea of what life was completely transformed into something brand new. He decided that this was the gift he would present to the girl because to him, it was far more valuable than anything else he had ever seen outside of the kingdom. _

"_When the boy finally returned home, people immediately began to surround the boy to see the light that he had to share. Everywhere the boy went, people lined up to witness this light and experience the warmth and life that seemed to give every person around him a new sense of strength and purpose. He saw faces of joy that spread on everyone's face as they encountered it. Because of this new found hope, the kingdom began to celebrate the light and consequently, every person's life began to change into something brand new._

"_Because of the excitement within the kingdom, the pretty girl approached the boy at the end of the day to see the light herself. However, when the girl finally made it to him, the wick had run out and the flame of the candle had gone out. The girl was saddened and apologized to the boy. She promised she would still play with him because she saw his determination and knew his heart was good. However, she admitted to herself that she wished she was able to see the light herself._

"_The boy smiled at her and said to her that though it seemed as though she had missed out, the light only served to symbolize that light exists in the world without the candle in the lamp. It was a reminder for the world to see that it only took the hope found in a little boy's heart to spark a light that was able to change the way he saw the world and transform his life for the better. The girl was amazed at what the boy had said and asked if he could help her find her own light. The boy agreed and took her hand and together, they set out to travel the world to discover their own lights and lived happily ever after. The End."_

Kari had not realized it, but her body had completely molded comfortably into TK's as he read to her the story. When she was first forced into his lap, she had purposely tried to create space despite how much more awkward it made things. However, at that moment, her mind was focused on the story that had just ended. "Hey, that was actually really deep. I'm kind of surprised it's a kid's story."

"Yeah. It's cute when this story is read to you as a kid because the pictures are really neat, but when you get older, the actual meaning becomes more and more significant," TK spoke in a heartfelt manner.

Kari began to yawn. "Hey, I'm getting a little drowsy. Wanna take a nap, TK?" she asked as she turned around to look at him with her eyes squinted. She was clearly out of it seeing the request she had just made to him.

TK chuckled at her current condition and agreed. He helped her lay on the bed as he sat down next to her.

"So, TK," she began to ask with a tired and childish smile, "if it's your mother's favorite story, how come it's so important to you too?" Kari asked.

"My mother told me that me and my brother were the little lights in her life every time she read this story to us. She also told me to find my own light in my life that gave me strength and purpose. She said that once I finally found it," he stared deep into Kari's eyes, "I should do everything possible to keep it safe. I keep this book around everywhere to remind me of not just my mother's love, but what she told me, every single day."

"The light…" Kari said, as she quickly began to lose it.

"Yes, Kari?" he asked as he watched her struggle to stay awake.

"Have you found it yet?"

TK gave her a long stare and responded, "Yes. Yes, I have."

"I'm glad," she said with a sweet smile. She then yawned and immediately passed out in the bed right after.

TK carefully slipped out of the bed, tucked the covers over her body, and turned off the lights. "Good night, Kari."

* * *

**Past ~ October 2004**

As TK shut the front door behind him, he noticed a note on the floor written by his father.

"_Meet me in my study room. Let's have a chat._"

TK walked over to where his father was and knocked on the door. After hearing his father's voice calling him to come in, he slowly opened the door and walked into the room. There, he saw his father at his desk working on a document that seemed lengthy and important.

"Have a seat," his father commanded him as he set aside his documents and leaned against his chair. "So dinner was delicious today. You didn't cook that, I presume?"

"What do you want," TK spoke sternly.

"Oh, I'm just curious about the girl. Judging by the way she cooks, she'd make a good wife. Thinking about marrying her?" TK knew his father was only taunting him, causing him to only react more coldly.

"As long as you're around, I won't be letting anybody into my life—not as a close friend, and definitely not as a girlfriend either."

"Takeru, I'm just being a father and wanting to know about my son. You never let people over. She must be special to you, am I right?"

"She came over for a school project. That's all," TK responded without losing his cold attitude.

"And then cooked for you? Hardly sounds like just a friend to me."

"I needed help getting my chores done," TK began to alter the subject slightly. He had more serious things to talk about with the man. "Why didn't you let me know your gang was coming over?"

"You should have known. I asked you to clean up the house. Why else would I care so much?"

"You suspected someone was over. You still should have warned me."

TK's father gave a condescending sigh, "Alright, you caught me. I wanted to see what would happen. I never imagined it would be a girl though. I'm sorry about that." However, the look he saw on his father's face was far from apologetic. If anything, TK knew he was thoroughly entertained.

TK had enough and stood up from his seat.

"Going so soon, Takeru?"

"I should have left earlier," TK responded in anger with a clenched fist and stormed out of his father's office.

TK's father sighed as he took a sip from his glass. "Very interesting. Not only have I never seen him bring someone over, I've never seen him get pissed about anyone except for his mother. And to think he was as self-absorbed as I am," he mused with himself and shrugged.

TK laid in his bed without a wink of sleep as he thought back to his day with Kari—in particular, he was stuck on his memory of hugging her in the park. 'Well this is new' he thought to himself. He turned to his side and he continued to contemplate his new feelings. He was still a bit unsure himself what type of feelings they were. Two months was not exactly a very long time and it was possible it was all an infatuation. However, he could not dismiss how angry he was to see the way his father's friends were treating her.

It didn't matter too much what exactly it was though. What truly mattered was the fact that his family situation had put Kari in danger that night and he was far from excited about it. Though his feelings were still unclear, one thing was certain: he cared about Kari. And he knew that if he got any closer to her, it was possible that the darkness that surrounded him would consume her light. It would probably be best to stay away.

* * *

**Present ~ June 2012**

Kari woke up in the middle of the night after the strange dream. For some reason, it seemed so real, almost as if it were an actual memory. However, it was not her own memory but TK's. Kari shook her head at the thought. Nothing made sense about her dreaming TK's memories but the thought of it being a real part of the past terrified her. What was it supposed to mean?

Kari decided not to dwell on it any further. Dreams were dreams. They never meant much to her in the past because she immediately forgot all the details. However the details of the dream seemed to stick in her mind like a stubborn stain that wouldn't wash off.

She turned to look at the clock. It was already 2 AM. She sighed as she looked around her. It was weird being in a bed that wasn't the one in her house. In fact, it was weird not even being in her house and this was definitely not the apartment that she had gotten for her and Davis to live in either.

As her mind wandered back to her ex-fiancé, her heart immediately began to hurt. It was during these times that heartbreak was most difficult to bear. During the day, she had been distracted by her fights with TK and the phone calls with Sora, but now she was disturbed by the company of her thoughts. Every new thought seemed to stab her in the heart as she curled up in bed filled with self-pity.

After spending thirty minutes trying to fight her own thoughts, she knew things wouldn't work out like this. There was no way she was going to fall asleep so she decided to get out of bed and take a walk. Hopefully strolling around outside would help release her stress and frustration. However, on her way downstairs, she realized the light was on in the kitchen. There, she saw TK hard at work on his computer with a few documents spread out before him.

As she poked her head into the kitchen to get a better look at what he was doing, TK looked up and noticed her. "Couldn't sleep?" he asked. He could tell that she had been crying for a good amount of time and realized she needed to talk so he motioned for her to come sit next to him.

Kari walked over, plopped down on the seat next to him, and hung her head down. "No."

TK put down everything he was working on and turned to her. "Need someone to talk to?"

"Yeah," she replied with a downcast look. "Since you were up this late, I figured it would be okay." She looked up at him uncomfortably, "It is okay right? You're not too busy or anything 'cause otherwise I can always—"

"It's perfectly fine, Kari," he cut her off with a warm smile that cooled down Kari's nerves. She smiled back at him in thankfulness to his generosity. "So, what's on your mind?"

"I can't sleep. I keep thinking about everything really…what my parents must be thinking right now. What everyone at the wedding must be thinking about me. Why Davis would cheat on me…" Kari began to choke up at the thought of his betrayal.

TK suddenly became very angered but tried his best to stay strong and contain it for her. "He cheated on you? I'm so sorry…I didn't know..." He made a mental note to wreck the jerk the next time he saw him.

Kari tried to smile through the tears that were slowly starting to come down. "It's okay TK. I promised to let you know what was going on eventually."

As Kari struggled to stop the tears that were following, TK reached for a tissue box and handed it to her. "Here," he spoke gently. "It's going to be, okay? I promise."

Kari sniffled through her words as she continued, "I know. It's just, you know, this kind of thing. It really messes with your self-confidence. It makes you wonder why he didn't think you were worth treasuring and loving fully. I don't know, I'm just so confused." She began to sob even harder to the point where she wasn't able to talk anymore. To hide her face, she buried her head against her knees and held on tightly to herself.

"Don't worry, Kari," TK reassured as he reached over to hold her hand tightly. To her own surprise, she accepted his hand. "Even if it feels like it, you're not alone. You have Sora, your family, and well, I guess, even me. It'll all work out in the end. Even though it's hard right now, I know that you're going to be an even stronger girl in the end. And I assure you, if he doesn't exist now, there will be a guy out there who's gonna look at you and say 'Wow, she's got a heart that I want to treasure and protect forever,' and you want to know how I know this? It's because you're Kari Kamiya. You were voted most likely to end up in a successful marriage back in high school. Remember?"

"Well, I guess nobody expected me to get ditched on my wedding day."

TK knew that she was still struggling but he swore to himself he wouldn't lose this one and let her lose anymore sleep over that loser. "It doesn't matter anymore. Because the guy you were meant to be with is coming soon, okay? No worries."

Kari tightened her grip on his hand and looked up at him. "You promise?"

TK lifted their hands and linked their pinkies together. "A promise is a promise." And with that, they stamped their thumbs together and shared warm smiles together. "Think you're ready to sleep now?"

Kari's crying had stopped so she wiped the remaining tears and gave TK a cheerful smile. "Yeah. I'm feeling much better now." Suddenly, the fatigue of 2 AM finally hit her as she quickly began to droop in her seat. After realizing how tired she was, he got out of his seat and kneeled before her with his back turned towards her.

"Here, climb on. I'll carry you back to your room." Kari realized that because she was so tired, she didn't have much of a choice. She could have crawl to her room, but being carried seemed like a much better option whether or not it was TK providing the service.

"Okay," she obeyed in a quiet, but adorable voice that put a smile on TK's face. Kari climbed onto his back and held on tight as TK carried her back to her room.

"I guess I have to tuck you in one more time tonight, huh?" TK teased halfway to her room. "Kari?" However, there was no reply from her as he realized she had already fallen asleep.

When they reached Kari's bed, TK gently placed her in her bed and tucked the covers over her. He knelt before her bed and slipped her hair behind her ear. He held her hand one last time that night as he whispered to her while she slept. "Goodnight, Kari. Please feel better soon and I promise that I'll be the one to protect you from now on. It'll be a lot easier for me to take care of you now that I'm living on my own so I promise I won't be hurting you anymore." TK paused and sighed as he stared at her peaceful, sleeping face. "And hopefully someday, you'll accept me as the one who will treasure you and love you fully. Until then, I'll be waiting for you—just like I always have been."

He gave her hand one last squeeze before turning the light off and quietly shutting the door.

* * *

As Kari slept again that night, she began to toss and turn once again in her sleep as a painful memory began to resurface.

**Past ~ October 2004**

"So, how was working with the cute guy that you ditched me for, Sora?"

Sora sighed, "It was a mistake. He ended up being pretty annoying and made me do all the work. It's not gonna work out between us. I'm sorry I ditched you, Kari. We'll be partners again next time, okay?"

Kari decided to tease her, "I don't know, Sora. I really enjoyed working with TK. He's really smart and we've been getting pretty close too." Despite her teasing, what she said was true. Working with TK the other night was truly enjoyable. Not only was he easy to work with due to being practically a genius, she felt good being able to confide in someone new about her family issues. It was also nice that he was able to open up to her as well.

"Are you serious, Kari? You can't just ditch me like that!"

Kari laughed at Sora's frustration until she noticed TK walking past her without saying a word. Assuming he simply didn't notice her, she called after him. "Hey TK!" she greeted as she walked up to him. However, she was ignored as he looked out the window instead of turning to say hi back. "TK?"

"What do you want," he said in a cold voice.

The tone of his voice shocked Kari as she tried to figure out what was going on, "TK? Did I do something wrong or…"

TK finally turned to face her. Something was off. His eyes gave a completely different vibe than they had the night before. "Just because we were partners doesn't mean we've become best friends or anything. Why are you trying to talk to me?"

Kari began to fume at this, "What the heck, TK? I don't see anything wrong with trying to talk to you." Kari's voice began to rise, causing the other students in the class to stop what they were doing and watch.

"I don't know. You're kind of weird. Just leave me alone," TK sighed as he turned his head to look out the window again.

Kari stared at him shocked and confused. It felt like their friendship had gone backwards. Instead of getting closer like she expected, he decided to disassociate himself from her, and this made her pissed. In her anger, she decided to yell at him without thinking. "Dang it, TK! Now I get why you didn't have friends at your old school. You're the biggest jerk I've ever met!" she declared as she stomped back to her seat and huffed.

Kari couldn't understand how someone she had let in so quickly could turn against her in a flash. It didn't make any sense. It had only been a short time but she had shared so much with him already. She really believed he could have become a close friend to her, a best friend even, but instead she was met with betrayal.

The rest of the class began to whisper amongst themselves after seeing what they had just witnessed. Once Kari noticed this, she began to regret making a scene. She took one last look at TK and frowned. Despite her anger, she couldn't help but worry as she observed the dreadfully depressed look on TK's face. She wasn't sure what to do knowing that he was such a loner and yet there was clearly problems going on in his life. She wanted to help him but he had already pushed her away. Kari sighed as she opened her textbook and attempted to force herself to study. She decided it was best to focus on other things, even if it meant reading about Algebra.

As TK finished packing his things and closed his locker, he noticed Kari walk right past him without a word. She was definitely pissed at him. Every other day, Kari always stopped by to say goodbye to him—not that he expected her to do so anymore after what he has said to her in class.

As he watched her walk off in the distance, his feet began to move in the same direction as her without thinking. Before he knew it, he was following Kari home while keeping a half block distance between them. He felt like a stalker but something in him wanted to make sure she would get home safely.

The next twenty minutes were kept in silence as TK continued to watch over her at a distance. When Kari finally made it home, TK sighed and leaned against the gate of her neighbor's house. He thought about the situation and how he had ended up in Kari's neighborhood. He couldn't deny anymore that he was beginning to have feelings for her but he felt trapped because he knew things wouldn't work out. Not right now at least—not with his father around. His background was way too dangerous at the moment and if she was ever involved in his life, he didn't know for sure if he could fully protect her.

TK crushed a ball of dirt on the sidewalk under his shoe. "I'm so sorry, Kari," he said to himself. "But I promise that I'll take care of you from afar. At least for now."

* * *

**A/N:** Thanks for reading chapter 2! If you were wondering what went wrong with their relationship, that's what happened.

Yeah I know, a lot happened in this chapter especially on both sides of the plot. I was thinking about making this two chapters instead of one but the first half didn't have enough substance to stand on its own and I didn't want to do that to you guys. :P So I made you wait even longer!

This chapter was 14,000 words and 29 pages long on Word. Don't ever expect a chapter this long ever again whether you liked it long or not. I just had to get a lot of things over with and start the real story. I know I threw a lot of details and plots at you but it's meant to come all together in the end and make sense, so just hold on tight. ;) I already wrote the ending to the story and it's super great.

I'm not Japanese which I'm sure was obvious. I had to look up popular Japanese surnames and major prefectures online. Chicago represent! Anyways. I don't really know too much about the Japanese school system except that the breaks and everything are structured differently. Since I'm going with the English dub names, (can't help myself. I grew up on the English dub show :]) I'm going to work with American school systems. I'm sure it won't be too much of a problem for you all.

Interesting fact of the day: I'm really sarcastic. It's sort of a problem. I guess some people think it's funny but when you do something too much it's always a problem. And unfortunately it shows up a little bit in my writing so if you ever have a "wtf is going on" moment, just pretend to laugh because I was trying to be funny. :(

Please Review!

Love, the Prohacker

I really hope the time breaks showed up this time. xD If not, I'm sorry. :(


	3. Chapter 3 Maybe You Do Care Part 1

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Digimon :P

**A/N** Thanks for reviews! Y'aller too kind.

THE TIME BREAKS SHOWED UP! ＼('ー'＼)(／'ー')／＼('ー'＼)(／'ー')／

* * *

**Present ~ July 2012**

After spending an hour cleaning up and getting ready for the day, Kari walked down the stairs into the kitchen to see TK struggling at the stove. It appeared as if he was trying to make some strange clash between eggs and brown pieces she assumed was probably meat.

"TK…what are you doing?" she asked as she walked over to his side and peered at the stove. TK looked over at her amused face and knew she was judging him. Kari could see the frustration hidden behind his sheepish smile as she continued to taunt him. "You seem to be on the Struggle Bus, TK. What are you even trying to make?"

"You can't tell? I'm making steak and eggs. I figured since we both woke up sort of late in the morning, we could both go for some brunch," TK said as he stared at her condescending face. "What? I think I've improved a lot over the years. And I'm definitely not on the Struggle Bus."

"Maybe the woman should be in the kitchen making brunch. I feel like I'd do a much better job."

TK burst out laughing as he watched Kari's face grow from condescending to annoyed. "Remember. I wasn't the one who said it."

"I hate you," she shot at him with a glare.

"Yeah, I'm sure you do," he said with a wink and passed the spatula over to Kari.

"No, this isn't what I need," she said as she put down the spatula and took the wok that TK was using and dumped its contents into the garbage can. TK faked a cry as he watched her throw away his morning's blood, sweat, and tears. "Don't cry too much over it. Not even Rachel Ray could save that…"

TK sighed knowing she was right. It was pretty nice having her around to cook for him these days. "Alright, let's redo the prep work."

* * *

TK beamed with happiness as he enjoyed Kari's cooking as always. "Dude, I should take cooking lessons from you every day. I seriously need to stop being such a dipwad at this," he complimented her before taking another bite of his food.

"You're really not that bad, TK," she encouraged him. "You've just got to remember that you should cook things separately, not all at once—especially not eggs and steak."

"And to remember to let the steak sit for a bit from time-to-time while I'm cooking it. Constantly stirring the meat keeps the heat from sticking to the surface and makes the meat cook slower, right?"

"Yep! Wow, TK. You can be a great student after all!" she teased him.

TK noticed the back-handed compliment and shot back at her. "Awww, thanks, Kar!" he spoke overexcitedly and felt the satisfaction as Kari's face fell into a glare within a split second.

"I thought we were done with those stupid names, TK. Aren't I your coworker now?" she huffed while she crossed her arms against her chest as if she were a child trying to convince her parents that it was time to treat her like a grown up.

"Does it seem like we're coworkers doing business related things right now? Didn't think so. Right now we're just talking like…whatever…we are…" he spoke awkwardly. Kari didn't blame him. They never really had a good label for their relationship. It was always just something weird. Kari looked back at him with the same awkwardness as her lips clenched together. She decided it was best to change the subject.

"Uh…so your house is pretty nice, I guess?" she began, clearly struggling to find a good conversation.

TK looked at her with an amused smile. "Best you could do, huh?"

"Why don't you find something better to talk about then if you hate my topic so much!" she shot at him.

"No, it's fine," he responded with a chuckle. "Let's talk about my house. And thank you. I got it for a nice deal when I finished school. I know it's nowhere near as large as the place I used to live at. It's very normal actually."

"Nah, I like it. The coziness of it is nice. I mean, I'm sure living in a mansion is cool and all but I'm sure after a while, I'd feel like I was just wasting space."

"I basically was," he nodded in agreement.

"You know. It's still kind of weird. Usually people who come out of college get an apartment. I mean, since you're living by yourself, why'd you get a house?"

"Honestly, I'm not really sure. I always planned to start a family eventually though."

"Wait," Kari hesitated before she continued, "Are you dating?"

"Nope." Kari hit herself inwardly at how stupid of a question it was. After living with him for a month, she would have known by now. "It's okay. I'm sure me announcing plans for a family would make you think that. I don't know. I thought about getting an apartment but for some reason, I felt like I had to get a house. I know it doesn't make sense…"

"Nah, it's okay. I mean, you having a house sure has made my situation a lot easier, right? Guess it really was the right thing to do after all," she reassured him.

"I guess so."

"So what are you doing today, TK? Got any business plans to take care of?" she asked as she walked over to his calendar to see if there were any significant days. "Oh wow. It's both your mom and dad's birthday today? I didn't know they had the same birthday. Are you going to see your old pop today? Or is he busy with…"

"He's dead actually," he spoke bluntly.

Kari stared at him with a blank face, unsure of how to respond. "Oh…"

"It's okay," TK said as he got up to grab a coat from the coat closet. "I was actually planning on going to the gravesite right now. You know, while it's still sort of early in the day before I have to do things for work. Want to come?" he asked as he reached for his car keys on the table.

Kari couldn't say no to a request like that, "Sure, I'll come." Kari began to run up the stairs, "I'll meet you in the car! Gotta grab some stuff." She knew it was going to be an awkward car ride.

* * *

Kari stood there with a bouquet of flowers in her hands as she watched TK clean his father and mother's grave in silence. It was an eerie stillness that seemed to make her body feel like stone as she bit the bottom of her lip. She was unsure of what to say or what to do at the moment but she knew she had to do something. After all, she had made that promise to him long ago.

"I'm sorry, TK. I didn't know he died…and I wish I could have been there to help you when he passed away—" but before Kari could finish, TK stood up and faced her. "But..but…" however she was unable to speak any further as she looked into TK's eyes. As always, they reflected a blue cloud of mystery. It was never clear to her what he was feeling whenever he looked at her in moments like this.

All of a sudden, a smile broke out of his face, snapping Kari out of the trance she seemed to be put in. "Don't worry about it, Kari. It's been three years actually so I'm a lot better now. Thank you for your concern," he comforted her as he took the flowers from Kari's arms and got back down to place the flowers upon his parent's gravesite. "It happened a few months before I graduated from college. I actually decided to quickly finish college because he passed away."

Though she couldn't see his face, she could tell he was still not okay. Despite his reassurance earlier, she was able to see by the way he carried himself as he prepared the gravesite that there was still some pain left.

"I'm sure you remember that my father and I didn't exactly get along," he began again. "We fought all the time, never had a loving conversation since my mother passed away, he was absorbed in his work, and numbed his life away with his addictions. By the time I left for college, things started to get worse. I guess with my mother dead, my older brother disappearing on us, and then having me gone for most of the year really got to him. You can have all the money, drugs, and alcohol in the world but none of those things can satisfy a lonely heart."

TK had finally finished cleaning and preparing the grave. He turned away to face Kari and looked to her from the ground. Kari was surprised once more by his eyes which almost seemed like they didn't belong to him—it was as if he had turned into a little boy who was lost and unable to find his way home. "The loneliness began to consume him and he started to lose his cool completely. He underwent some foolish decisions with his business and one bad choice after another ultimately led to his suicidal death. Sometimes I wish I could have gone back in time and done something about it—to change his mind and let him know that I was still there for him and believed in him…"

TK's eyes widened in surprise as Kari dropped to her knees and knelt down before his parent's grave. "What are you…"

"I'm going to pay my respects to your parents. I hope that's okay with you," she said as she looked at TK's broken expression with a strong determination in her eyes.

"Kari…" TK whispered in his speechlessness. He watched as Kari closed her eyes and held her hands together before her.

"Hi. My name is Kari," she began. "It's nice to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Takaishi. Well, Mr. Takaishi, you met me once sorta but I didn't really get to introduce myself to you. I made you dinner once if you remember. I'm TK's friend and enemy. Actually, we were more enemies in high school. These days, I feel like we've become more like friends."

TK looked over at Kari and smiled at her. Being able to spend time with Kari the past month had been quite the experience. He was able to see how she had grown up and changed into an even more beautiful woman since he had last seen her five years before. However, her heart and personality were still the same and what was going on before him was a perfect example of that. He had witnessed people start off bright and hopeful entering into college and slowly destroying their futures only a couple years in. Seeing how Kari had practically stayed the same showed that the values and beliefs that shaped who she was before college were much greater than the environments and circumstances she had put herself in for the past five years. This only strengthened his hope in her—the hope he had always had in her since the start—because he knew that she was, and would always be, genuinely, Kari.

His heart warmed further as the girl before him continued to talk to his parents, "Thank you two for the way you raised TK. Thank you for the ways you showed him love and how to be strong through the roughest storms of life. If it weren't for you two, I wouldn't be able to have someone like TK to help me out and I'd be the biggest mess ever," she spoke with a small, light, but heartfelt chuckle. Her voice started to break down slightly as she began to become slightly more emotional.

"Mrs. Takaishi, I think you'd be happy to know that your love for TK has not been forgotten and is living and breathing everywhere within his household each and every day. Mr. Takaishi, I guess you messed up a bit and your relationship with TK was not as strong as you had hoped but I know and have seen that TK loved you just as much as you loved him. I can see it by the way he thinks about you and misses you since you've been gone and I know that's the feeling you felt when you realized you were alone when TK left for college. I pray that your spirit will be at peace knowing that even though the circumstances of your death were painful, the love your family had for you will never be lost…"

Kari peeked an eye open and looked at TK. "That's all…"

TK paused to fully process the moment before finally responding. "Thank you, Kari," he spoke softly.

"Anytime," she responded as they quickly exchanged warm smiles and continued to pay their respects in silence.

* * *

**A/N**: Kari gets to be sweet this time around. :) That's all for today! It was a shortie. Actually, it's a calm before the storm because the next chapter is going to be as long as the last one…like trust me it's going to be sooo very long so I decided to post this up because I felt like this little segment could stand on its own. If I added this to next chapter, it would just be way too obnoxiously massive.

Hope you guys weren't too disappointed by the length. I guess it's to be excepted since I posted this two days after I posted the last chapter. :P hehe but I hope you still enjoyed it.

Some responses to your reviews:

Basically all the characters are OOC except Sora and Matt (who you will meet next chap! Mini spoiler :P). It's an AU story so I guess it is somewhat expected. Sorry if I end up turning your fave character into a jerk. :( But yeah, a lot of you commented about how TK and Kari are pretty different from the anime. It's basically because I've only really watched the first season multiple times. I wrote this story in response to finishing it again post-wisdom teeth surgery since I had nothing else to do while I wasted away on painkillers ;) I watched season two a long time ago and I don't even think I finished it, honestly. I mean the takari parts were great of course, but it was still not as good as season one which is why they're pretty OOC because they didn't have much of a personality when they were kids and I can't have TK as a cry baby forever. :P As cute as that was…but I'm glad to know you guys like the way I portray them. :)

SerendipityInSerendipity: omigosh…thanks for catching that mess up for me. Totally fixed it. :P haha yeah for sure, I def played the risk there because I really don't know much about it. However, I never planned to make it a huge detail for this story from the beginning hence why I ended up killing him off so quick xD I needed to establish a reason for why TK had to stay at a distance. And since I'm able to jump around with the time a lot with this plot, I figured I could get away with a couple things. It's okay. I figured that if everyone has read as many fanfics as I have, nothing is unpredictable anymore. :P hehe

Okay I'll stop before my response section exceeds the chapter itself -.-

Thanks for reading. Once again, sorry it was really short. :P

But please review! :D


	4. Chapter 4 Maybe You Do Care Part 2

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Digimon or any of the characters presented in this story :(

**A/N** Thanks again reviewers. Always making my day. :)

I hope it excited you as much as it excited me that the word count of this story doubled after posting this chapter. :)

Whenever the past shows up, Kari is either daydreaming or actually dreaming about it. But you probably figured that out already.

* * *

**Present ~ July 2012**

"How's the ice cream?" TK asked as he watched Kari conquer her large bowl of strawberry ice cream. After such a depressing start to the day at the cemetery, ice cream felt like the perfect solution to lighten the dreary mood.

"It's amazing! Did you know this is like my most favorite thing in the world?" she murmured while she continued to blast through her ice cream. She promised herself not to eat dinner later that day.

"I guess I didn't," he chuckled and smiled at her child-like excitement. "Wow, Kari! I guess you're not one to diet. You've only got like two bites left!"

"Nope! Only one!" she proudly stated as she stuffed the remaining ice cream into her mouth and dropped the spoon into the bowl feeling like a champion. "Mmmm. That was so good. This place is seriously the best. Been going here since I was a kid."

"Glad you liked it, Kari. I just wanted to thank you for going to the gravesite with me today. Your support helped me out a lot. I'm usually pretty depressed on this day," he thanked her sincerely. She would never realize it, but everything that she had said and done for him in the past hour had helped to heal the wounds much more than time itself had done for the past three years.

"It was no problem! I mean, I'd be a huge jerk if I didn't give you my support," she stated with a light laugh.

Kari would never admit it to him, but things were quickly changing between her and TK. She couldn't put her finger on it but the way she looked at him before and the way she looked at him now—it had become, well, different. However, she was still very unsure of what it was and why. Yes, he had matured a lot over the years. Anyone forced to go through as much as he did would have to grow up very quickly—but one thing she knew for certain, it was something much more than growing up. After all, he still made fun of her all the time.

They had fought so much and hated each other's guts back in high school that it was still a wonder how fate had caused her to end up in the situation she was in now. Who would have known that just a month ago, she was about to marry a man that she thought would become her world and now, she was living at another man's house.

'Davis…' she thought to herself with a sad expression. The past month had been nothing short of difficult for her. Her confidence had hit an all-time low after being cheated on, dumped, and left with nothing. Sex. It was a powerful thing. It had the power to create life and the power to destroy plans of new marriages and starting families.

And then there was problem with everyone else. Because of what had happened to her, she became ashamed of herself. She had been hiding at TK's house for a month and still hadn't contacted anyone except for Sora. She knew she had to face the world soon—especially her parents who were still in the hospital after so many years.

"What's wrong?" Kari jumped in her seat as she was brought back to reality. She looked up and met TK's concerned eyes. "Something's bothering you, right?"

"Um…well…" Kari began to speak with hesitation.

TK placed his hand over Kari's and gave her a reassuring smile. "It's okay, you can tell me."

"Oh, I'm just worried about my own parents, you know? After paying my respects to yours, I realized I haven't seen mine since the day of the wedding," she half lied. She didn't want to tell him everything concerning Davis and especially not her thoughts about him.

"Did you want to go visit them soon? We can go together if you need any support," TK suggested.

"Maybe," she said pretending to contemplate the idea. However, she knew that she was still not ready to face her family just yet. She wasn't exactly sure why but she didn't want to talk about it anymore. "Hey. Wanna head out now since I'm finished eating?" she asked, trying to get out of the conversation.

"Sure," TK responded as he got up and followed her out the door. He sighed quietly knowing she was still very broken from what had happened to her but decided to let it go. She would confide in him more when she was ready.

* * *

As they began to drive back home, TK turned to look at Kari who seemed to be doing better—or she was doing a good job of acting like it. "Are you sure you're going to be okay, Kari?" he asked her just to make sure.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," she responded with a sweet smile. "Don't worry, TK."

"If you say so," he said, accepting her request.

"So, TK. There's something I've been curious about. Did you get any inheritance money? Or did it all go to your brother?" she asked him.

"Well, since my brother completely disappeared for a long time and there was no way to find him, my dad had no choice but to give me all his belongings."

Kari frowned at this. Her older brother, Tai, was working in the States so she wasn't able to see him much either; however, he still came back to visit her during the holidays. In TK's situation, his brother had completely disappeared for years. She knew the pain of missing an older brother and knowing that TK had not only lost both of his parents but had his brother disappear broke her heart.

"Nobody could find a way to contact your brother at all?"

"Not yet. I think my dad's lawyer is still trying to find him because he has to find out about my father's death somehow. I don't know. We'll see what happens when he's found," he said as he turned to look at her with a smile. "Don't worry, Kari. I've been alright. Life is a lot less lonely with you around."

Kari smiled back at him after hearing this as she sighed in relief. She didn't have to feel too guilty about living at his house either. "So does this mean you're pretty rich then?" she asked curiously.

"Wrong. I gave almost all the money away. I didn't feel right living off of his dirty money," he responded. Kari nodded with slight admiration. It was noble of him and she could see how he would feel guilty about it. "I always promised myself that I would break free from my dad and learn to support myself on my own. I lived a comfortable lifestyle as a child through easy, but illegal ways. I guess starting the business was a way for me to prove to myself and the world that I could survive the right way of doing it."

"What did you mean by almost all the money? So you kept some of it?"

TK rose his eyebrow and looked at her with an amused expression. "You sound like a gold digger."

Kari laughed at this. "No, I'm just really curious, I swear! But I really do admire you for what you did. I'm glad you didn't keep the money for yourself," she encouraged him.

"Thanks, Kari," he said while laughing at her flustered reaction. "I decided to still keep 10% of the money. I figured I needed some money to help get me on my feet and my mom did work a job too so the money I inherited wasn't all bad. My mother made money through honest means and I decided to honor that."

"I'm glad," she responded genuinely. "Good thing you did too! Or else I wouldn't have a job."

TK chuckled, "I guess you can see it that way.

"So boss," she began to laugh and joke around cheerfully causing an amused expression from TK. It was good to see her smiling again. Either that or the ice cream was getting to her. "What's on the agenda for work today?"

The past month had largely been spent on introducing Kari to the company and getting her trained for her position. Besides training, Kari began to work on the new logo and company image with the advertising and design team and, not to TK's surprise, everyone from all the departments fell in love with Kari's ideas. Because the project was soon wrapping up, TK decided it was time to introduce the next project for the team to work on.

"We'll be working on the new shoe line. It's a really important project because basketball shoes is the largest line that our company has to offer. You're going to be working with the research team for this project so—"

"Wait, I'm sorry," Kari cut him off as she stiffened in her seat. Horrible memories began to flood into her mind as she felt her mood quickly go down the drain. "Did you say shoes? Like I have to work with athletic shoes and stuff? At_ your_ company?"

TK sighed. He should have seen this coming. "Look, I know it'll probably bring up bad memories from high school, but I really need your help on this. It's important," he pleaded with her.

"Yeah, I know. It's been over seven years. I know I should get over it. I'm sorry," she responded in a monotone voice.

TK looked over to Kari who was now completely bummed out as she looked out the window in silence. He could tell he was going to have a hard time at today's meeting. "You don't have to say sorry, Kari."

"Yeah," she responded. Kari felt bad. She knew how important this was to TK but she couldn't help but dwell on the past and what had happened way back in high school.

* * *

**Past ~ March 2005**

The sound of Kari's racing could be heard through the halls as she blasted past numerous teachers and faculty member telling her to slow down. She was forced to shrug off the voices of various students yelling at her for knocking down their books due to her bumping into them in the hallways. 'Eh, they'll get over it,' she thought to herself as she looked down at her watch and realized there was only one minute left. "One more hallway, lezgo!" she cheered herself on as she picked up the pace and turned the corner.

Sora was enjoying her morning reading a novel at her desk until she heard a slam from the doorway. She immediately turned her head to see the cause of the noise and dropper her jaw aghast as she witnessed Kari leaning against the door frame trying to catch her breath. "Omigosh, Kari!" Sora called out, running over to her best friend. "Why are you so exhausted? Did you get chased by a dinosaur on the way to school or something?" she asked with sincere concern for her friend who looked like she was about to pass out.

"Even worse…" Kari began to speak while trying to catch her breath. "Monster…moto…had to make it to class on time or I'd…have to see him again," she spoke with a look of intense fear written all over her face. "I'm not late, am I?"

Sora checked her phone for the time, "Actually, there's still ten minutes left before class starts…"

Kari facepalmed for being stupid as she suddenly remembered something. "Dang it! I totally forgot I set my watch ten minutes ahead. I feel so dumb right now," she sighed as she regained her composure.

Sora awkwardly laughed at Kari unsure of what to say as her best friend began to limp her way to her seat. "Kari? Are you okay? Do you need help walking or something?"

As Kari was limping, she turned her head over her shoulder and flashed a smile at Sora to let her know she was okay. However, as her head was facing the other way, Kari began to lose her footing. Her ankle rolled over slightly, causing her to trip over and fall forward as her head bounced against someone's chest. The next thing Kari knew, she was falling backwards with her eyes shut, terrified. Instead of hitting the ground, however, a pair of hands caught her own.

"Idiot," came a voice she knew far too well. Kari's eyes shot open in a glare as she looked at the face of whom the voice belonged to as he helped her regain her footing. Once her feet were firmly planted to the ground, Kari quickly jerked her hands out of his.

"What did you say, TK?"

"Do I really need to repeat myself? I'm sure you know how much of an idiot and klutz you are," he teased with his tongue sticking out.

Worried the two would cause a scene, Sora immediately ran over and cut into their conversation. "Wow, Kari! Your shoes are really cute. I rarely see you wear running shoes but they sure are adorable."

"Really? You think so?" Kari said while blushing. "I put these on so I could run to class and not be late. I got them super cheap at that boutique downtown! I wanted to get the ones in yellow but they didn't have my size so I got these pink ones instead but they're still cute regardless!" Kari giggled as the two girls continued to gush over the topic of cute shoes. They were in girl mode.

"You should toss them," came TK's voice from down low. He was squatting down while taking a look at Kari's shoes.

"What did you say, TK?" Kari asked with an annoyed expression.

"I'm just saying—OW!" TK cried out in pain after being nudged in the face by Kari's shoe. "What was that for?" he asked as he got up from the floor and saw Kari's irritated expression. "But seriously, Kari, think about the way you were limping your way into class just now. One look at those shoes, and I can tell they were not made for running. You could injure yourself, Kari."

"Wow, you think you know so much about shoes?" Kari said rudely. Typically, she would be thankful for someone's concern, but because it was TK, she was utterly annoyed.

"I do. It's sort of a hobby. I like to research them," TK stated as he walked away to his seat.

"You could injure yourself, Kari. I don't actually care, I just think you're an idiot and klutz, meh, meh, blehhhh!" Kari mocked TK's voice as she glared at his back.

Sora laughed at the two from the side. She always thought TK and Kari's exchanges were amusing.

"Kari! Sora!" called a girl's voice from the doorway. Sora and Kari turned around to see Yolei walk into the classroom with Mimi following behind her. The four girls united together around Kari's desk like they did most mornings when Kari wasn't late.

"Wow, Kari. You're pretty early. You're usually the last one here," said Yolei.

"Yeah, I set my watch ten minutes early. It totally worked," Kari replied with a sheepish grin as the rest of the girls laughed at Kari's great achievement.

"So did you guys hear about what happened to the little boy Tsuyoshi that we all used to play with when we were younger?" Mimi began to speak. "Remember? He was the little guy with big glasses that used to live down the block from all of us."

"Oh yeah! And then he moved a few years ago. I was so sad. He was adorable," Sora said as she began to reminisce about the good old days when the four of them played with Tsuyoshi together during neighborhood block parties. Sora was thankful that after many years, the four of them were still together.

However, Kari was off in her own world. Without even realizing it, she was watching TK from afar. Nothing in the world made her more confused than the way her emotions went wild whenever she watched him from far away. It would always start with an intense combination of annoyance and anger but then she would see the way he distanced himself from the rest of the world and her frustrations would melt away in a sense of sadness that would take over her heart. However, she could never pinpoint the reason behind her sadness. Was it because she knew he was lonely and felt pity for him or was it because somewhere deep inside, she always believed they were meant to be friends and yet that kind of reality seemed so far away? Everything about him was a mystery to her; it made her head spin uncomfortably but yet the mystery intrigued her and she was unable to let it go.

"Hello? Earth to Kari. You're spacing out, girl," Mimi said while waving a hand in front of Kari's face to try to bring her back.

"Huh? What?" Kari snapped back but was unable to give a proper response as Mr. Watanabe walked in.

"Alright class. Let's get this over with," their teacher began. "We need volunteers for a pep rally. Dean Matsumoto has one of these crazy ideas to get the classes more unified and whatnot," he muttered while awkwardly trying to fix his pants.

While Mr. Watanabe was giving his announcement, he grinned evilly as he noticed a group of girls not paying attention and talking amongst themselves. "Perfect. Sora, Kari, Mimi, Yolei?" After hearing their names, their attention was finally caught. "Thank you for volunteering to dance during the basketball team pep rally. Since you girls weren't paying attention earlier, I'll tell you four what's going on…again. Gosh, I'm so generous."

Kari rolled her eyes at the teacher. He had one of the worst personalities she had ever seen and wondered if he lashed out on his students because he didn't have any friends outside of work.

"Dean Matsumoto wants to celebrate a successful basketball season this year by having a school wide assembly. Every class has to send four representatives to do a cheer during the pep rally. Sound good? Thanks for volunteering."

Kari groaned silently in her seat and cried inwardly at what had just happened. At least there would be a lot of other students doing it with her. As long as she didn't cause a huge scene, she would be able to get by unnoticed.

* * *

He was at it again. Kari lightly smacked herself on the face to force herself to stay awake during Mr. Watanabe's lecture about the novel they were supposed to read last night, _Queen Sophia._ It was amazing, really, how much one could go on and on about some make believe monarch in a story. Kari's head slipped from the support of her hand, immediately waking herself up from almost passing out in class. As Kari shook her head to regain full consciousness, she heard Mr. Watanabe clear his throat and call out her name. _Wonderful_.

"Miss Kamiya."

"Yes, Mr. Watanabe?" Kari said with a sweet voice. Maybe sucking up would do the trick.

"Please tell us what you think about chapter four." It didn't work. "Since you seem to be giving me your utmost attention, I'm sure you have quite a few interesting things to say."

Kari wanted to roll her eyes at him. Oh, she _definitely_ had some interesting things to say about his unzipped fly—oh wait—was she supposed to talk about the book?

"Yes, of course! I definitely have a lot of profound things to share," she continued with her fake, sweet, sugary, glucosey, tone. Good thing she actually did her reading last night.

"Great! Let's hear it!" he pretended to cheer her on. Kari wasn't the only one acting fake in the conversation. Mr. Watanabe was prepared to bring her down.

"Well let's see, chapter four. That's when the Duke was rewarded for how well his province was thriving right?" she said while trying to remember what happened. It was something like that…

"Yes, yes. Good to know you read Cliff Notes at least. Now tell me. What was the importance of the chapter? What was the author trying to say?"

Kari was furious. She truly felt that Cliff Notes was a respectable resource of information. "Well," she began nervously, "I think that the importance of this chapter lies not in the celebration of the Duke's achievements, but what the servants of the Queen had done to even allow the Duke to be as successful as he was."

Mr. Watanabe looked at her with his eyebrows raised. His displeased expression did not do much to encourage Kari but she kept on going anyways.

"I know that it seems like the Duke was really awesome and all but I think there's a reason why the author had the Queen go around and talk to all the servants. I mean they did some pretty special stuff. They just don't get noticed because they don't have the title of a Duke or anything."

"Really now. Interesting. And what would be the author's intentions for that?"

"To make the point that the world would be a better place if we thought less about the people with status and gave more attention to the smaller people who work twice as hard and deserve it? I guess…uh…" Kari began to shrink awkwardly in her seat as Mr. Watanabe shook his head at her. He looked over and smiled at the boy sitting by the window with his hand raised.

"Ahh, yes. Takeru Takaishi. Let us all hear what you have to say," he said with eagerness. He loved it when TK talked in class because he was always right on the money.

"I completely disagree with Kari." At his comment, Kari quickly jerked her head over to TK's direction and met his eyes with a glare. "The scenes where the Queen talks to the servants were only meant to show the Queen's good nature as a monarch. It was definitely not meant to take credit away from what the Duke had done for his province. This is shown through the symbols the author used to portray this idea of…"

The rest of TK's long speech went through one ear and out the other as Kari raged at him in her seat. _That gasbag._ Did he really have to embarrass her and shut her down like that in front of the whole class?

Mr. Watanabe beamed with excitement from what TK had just shared and praised him for being a genius. Of course he liked what TK said. He only liked to hear whatever was agreeable to his ideas and interpretations.

Kari slouched in her seat and groaned inwardly. At least she wouldn't have to talk for the rest of the class. The thought of a nap sounded perfect to her as she rested her head against her hand once again and let the rest of the class period slip away before her.

* * *

Sora caught up to her best friend who was clearly drooping in defeat in the hallway. She figured she would need someone to talk to. "I'm sorry, Kari. It wasn't very nice of TK to humiliate you in class. I mean Watanabe did it too but I guess it's sort of his job…"

Kari sighed. "It's okay, Sora. I should get used to it by now."

"Yeah, I don't really understand what his deal is though. Always bothering you like that…"

"Seriously. He does some crazy rude things," Kari began as the thought of TK made her angry, once again. "Remember that one time after school on Valentine's day? He asked me out at the front of the school with a bouquet of flowers because he knew I would reject him and make myself look like a massive douche to the public eye. I'm pretty sure that half the girls at school hated me for a solid few weeks. Actually, half the girls still hate me for it," she cringed at the thought of the many glares she had received lately.

"Yeah! I remember that. Not cool," Sora said as she shook her head at the thought of how horrible TK was. "There was also that one time in PE when he kept hitting you with the dodge ball even when you were in jail. Remember that?"

"Omigosh. I almost forgot. And then he was like, 'Blehhh. Not my fault you were standing in the way of someone else every time I threw the ball!' Sorry my nonexistent butt was always in your way, moron!"

Sora started to crack up at Kari's comment. She was always so funny whenever she was pissed off at that boy.

"OH! Speaking of butts. I can never forget that one time when I tripped and fell off the stairs."

_Despite the pain from collapsing on the ground, Kari had to regain her cool as soon as possible. As she quickly began to pick up her books, she heard a familiar laugh from behind her before she was able to make her escape._

"_Wow, Kar! I didn't know you strolled in hot pink panties. Maybe you should rethink wearing skirts to school if you're gonna be that clumsy all the time," came TK's taunting voice._

_Kari's face turned bright red as she turned around and came face-to-face with the boy she hated the most. "TK, you pervert! And don't you EVER stare at my badonkadonk again!" she yelled at him before giving TK a nice, hard kick in the shin._

_Kari promptly turned around and stomped away from him as she heard him fake a cry from behind her. Of course, of all the times she walked down the stairs, he had to be there to witness the one time she took a fall. That was also the beginning of the nickname, Kar. _

Sora began to laugh even harder at Kari's story. "Kari, I'm pretty sure you embarrassed yourself more than he embarrassed you," she admitted.

"Sora!" Kari exclaimed in disbelief. "You're supposed to be on my side!"

"Alright, alright, sorry!" Sora apologized as the two best friends continued to laugh about their lives as they made their ways down the hall.

* * *

**One Week Later**

Kari made her way out of the school ready to collapse after practicing the cheer she had to do at the pep rally tomorrow. It was awful to say the least and it was a relief that it was finally over. Before she was able to make it a few feet out of the school, she heard TK's voice, much to her displeasure, calling out to her.

"Kari!" TK called as he caught up to her. Kari looked at him strangely as she noticed signs discomfort written all over his face. It almost seemed like he actually had something important to tell her.

"Don't you have basketball practice or something right now?" Kari asked him.

"We finished a little while ago. I have something to tell you. I think that…that…" he began to speak with an intense amount of concern in his eyes.

"Yes, what is it, TK?" All of a sudden, TK's face changed from concerned to mischievous in an instant. Kari braced herself knowing that that very look on his face never meant anything good for her.

"I think that tomorrow will be a lot of fun, don't you think, Kar? You get to do a cheer in front of the entire school! And knowing the kind of klutz you are, you're definitely bound to do something embarrassing."

Kari's blood began to boil for a quick second before she calmed down again with a sigh. "Sorry, TK. I'd love to, but I'm not in the mood to fight right now. Next time you talk to me, make sure it's actually important and not something stupid," she said as she brushed him off and walked away from him. 'And to think he might have actually had something urgent to tell me,' she thought to herself while shaking her head.

* * *

Kari began to feel sick to her stomach as she walked into the gymnasium filled with hundreds of students. What if she really did end up embarrassing herself? She tried to forget about the thought—it was unlikely anyways. Kari turned her attention to the basketball team as she saw Davis passing out water to everyone on the team. She saw him turn around as their eyes made contact and to her surprise, a huge grin appeared on his face as he made his way towards her.

"Hi, Kari! I heard you're participating in the cheer today! Would you like some water to keep you hydrated?" he asked as he handed her some water.

"Sure, Davis! Thank you so much," she thanked him sweetly as she took the water from him.

Davis' face began to grow a slight hint of red as he tried to speak again, "Kari, you look really—" but before he could finish, Willis pushed Davis aside and cut into their conversation.

"Hi, Kari!" Willis greeted as he put his arm around her.

Kari blushed at his action as he walked her towards the bleachers leaving Davis to walk alone behind them. "Wanna sit with me during the pep rally? Only special girls get to sit with the starting line-up!"

"Sorry, I can't Willis," Kari apologized as she slipped from under his arm. "I'm participating in the cheer so I have to go meet up with everyone else who's doing it right now. I'll talk to you later, okay?" she reassured him politely before running off.

"I'll see you later, Kari!" he called out to her.

As Kari made her way towards the other side of the gymnasium, she was relieved to see Sora, Mimi, and Yolei together chatting amongst themselves.

"Hey, guys!" Kari greeted as Sora ran up to give her best friend a hug. However, Mimi and Yolei remained seated and awkwardly waved to her. Kari decided to brush off their strange behavior—they were probably having a bad day, anyways.

"Ready to cheer in front of the whole school, Kari?" Sora said sarcastically.

"Aw yeah, you know it! The cheer is really good too! I can't wait for everyone to see what a star I am!" Kari replied with the same tone of sarcasm as the two girls burst out laughing. They both knew that it was the worst cheer ever and it was an absolute pain for them to learn it the other day.

_Kari leaned against her chair with her arms crossed as she pretended to be intrigued by what her favorite dean, Monstermoto, had to say. _

"_Thank you all for volunteering and representing your classes for the pep rally tomorrow. It's a privilege to be a part of such a school-wide unified activity! Aya, would you like to step forward?" Dean Matsumoto stepped aside as Aya, the varsity cheerleading captain walked up and shook hands with the dean. "Everyone, many of you may know Aya. She graciously volunteered her services to create a cheer and teach it to everyone here! How about we give Aya a hand?"_

_A sluggish applause could be heard by the group of students who all seemed as though they were forced to volunteer for such an embarrassing activity. Kari had heard rumors that teachers were offering extra credit to students in exchange. _

"_Thank you, everybody! I'm like, so very excited to do this with you all!" Aya began with her annoying prep voice that drove Kari crazy every time. "I'm going to show you the cheer now. It's very simple but still, pay attention, okay?"_

_Aya walked away from the microphone and closer to the area where everyone was sitting. "One, two, three, four! Who's the best in all the world? We are! We are! Five, six, seven, eight! Which team do they love to hate? Our team! Our team!"_

_An intense silence could be heard throughout the gym as every student was speechless to what they had seen and heard. However, Dean Matsumoto had a completely different response as he began to clap with rage. He walked up to Aya and patted her on the back._

"_That was wonderful, Aya!" he praised her._

"_Thank you, sir," Aya winked at the dean._

_Kari practically puked in her mouth as she watched their borderline flirtatious exchange. That man truly was a monster. Kari and Sora turned to look at each other with depressed expressions on their faces. It was going to be a very long practice._

* * *

"And it's his seventh three-pointer! Everyone give a hand to Davis for doing a splendid job. Seven three-pointers in one minute! Wow! This three-point shooting contest is turning out to be a wild one!" announced Matsumoto as Davis walked toward the bleachers and received high-fives from his teammates. However, Willis, who had made six three-pointers right before him, allowed his jealousy to take over and refused to give Davis a high-five. This caused Davis to frown as he took Willis' hand and shook it against his will.

"Don't worry, Willis. I just got lucky. I'm sure you'll beat me next time," Davis encouraged Willis.

"Whatever," Willis huffed as he turned his head away.

"The last one to shoot is our school's very own star point guard, Takeru!" Cheers from half the school's population of girls could be heard as TK made his way onto the court.

As Kari stood along the court with the rest of the volunteers, she saw the sight of TK coming her way and immediately became annoyed. "Hey, TK! Like my shoes?" Kari said to pester and distract TK. TK shook his head and rolled his eyes as he dribbled the ball and ran past her. Kari stuck her tongue in his direction to taunt him.

Within the first thirty seconds, TK had already made his first four three-pointers. The whole crowd of students got on their feet in excitement as they began to cheer loudly as the fifth three pointer sunk into the hoop.

"Five! Six! Seven!" the crowd chanted and began to go wild as the next two baskets followed suit. However, Kari stood there and rolled her eyes.

"Just one more three! Can he do it?" Matsumoto exclaimed on the microphone.

"Ten! Nine! Eight! Seven! Six!" the students shouted as the clock ran down. TK made another shot and missed. The next shot was his last chance. "Five! Four! Three! Two!" the crowd roared as the last shot landed in a nice, clean, swoosh.

"Amazing! And Takeru Takaishi takes the title for this year's three-point contest! Congratulations, Takeru," Matsumoto spoke with excitement. "And now, if everyone could please place your attention to the volunteers on the sidelines as they present a cheer for the basketball team's successful season!"

Kari sighed as she watched the eyes of every student on her. Good thing she was in the front row too. Even better. Aya began to count off as the volunteers started to do the chant. "One, two, three, four! Who's the best in all the world? We are! We are!_" _

"Forget this," she sighed to herself, unable to stomach the horrible situation. She decided that there was no way she was going to say such an awful chant so she began to make up one on her own. "One, two, three, four! They screw bimbos, sluts, and whores! Dick-lords! Dick-lords!" Kari cheered as she cracked up. 'Haha. I'm so funny!' she praised herself. Kari felt that it was a pretty good chant—and best of all, it actually rhymed. She made sure she spoke quietly while pretending to look like she was shouting in order to not stick out too much from the other one hundred students cheering with her.

As Kari went for the final jump of the cheer, she landed on the wrong part of her foot as she lost her balance and fell over. The whole school was in silence as Kari suddenly remembered what TK had said to her the day before.

"_I think that tomorrow will be a lot of fun, don't you think, Kar? You get to do a cheer in front of the entire school! And knowing the kind of klutz you are, you're definitely bound to do something embarrassing."_

Kari cursed TK under her breath for being right, "Darn you, TK." Suddenly, she heard two voices calling out her name. She looked up to see Willis and Davis running towards her.

"Oh no, it looks like you rolled your ankle," Davis spoke with worry as he took a look at her foot.

"Here, get on my back. I'll take you to the nurse's office," Willis said as he kneeled before her. Kari agreed as she climbed on and left the gym on Willis' back with Davis walking next to them.

As the scene was unfolding, Sora looked over with concern at Mimi who appeared to be greatly angered as she shook in place with her fists clenched.

* * *

"How are you feeling, Kari?" Willis asked as he and Davis helped to gently take Kari's pink shoes off her feet. She winced in slight pain but decided to hide it. She was thankful for their help and didn't want them to worry for her any further.

"I'm alright," she responded politely just as a ringtone went off. Willis got up and walked a few feet away to answer his phone.

"Hey. Yeah I'm helping someone out right now. My friend hurt herself and we're waiting for her turn outside the nurse's office," he answered and then paused. "Yeah, I can come now. Davis is here too so it's okay. Cool, see you soon," he said as he hung up his phone. "Sorry, guys. I gotta go. Make sure you text me and tell me how you're doing later okay, Kari?" he apologized as Kari nodded.

As Willis walked away, Davis took Kari's shoes and placed them underneath his seat. "Think you'll be okay?" he asked with an encouraging smile as he took the seat next to her.

"Yeah, I think so," she replied sweetly while dangling her legs from the chair to show him she was still somewhat agile.

"That's good to hear. By the way, you were really cute out there," Davis complimented her nervously. "It was a lot of fun to watch you guys cheer us on. Thanks, Kari!"

Kari laughed awkwardly knowing that in reality, she was cheering something far from encouraging. "Yeah, of course. Any time…"

Their attention was averted to the door of the nurse's office as a freshman boy walked out. "Now remember," said the nurse, "you can't go ditching assemblies anymore by faking a sickness. You hear me?"

"Yes, Nurse Joy," said the boy as he sulked away from the office. Nurse Joy turned her head over to Kari and Davis and smiled. "Come on in!" she said as Davis helped Kari hop into the nurse's office.

* * *

"Well, you got pretty lucky, Kari," the nurse began. "If you rolled your ankle over just a little bit, you wouldn't be able to walk for about two weeks. Still, make sure you walk carefully. I'll give you a wrap for your ankle too, okay? And make sure you don't do any physical activities anymore with whichever pair of shoes you were using."

Kari sighed. TK was right about her shoes after all. "Wait, Davis. Where are my shoes?"

"Oh, I think I left them outside. I'll be right back," he said as he ran out the door. After a second, Davis walked back in with a nervous look.

Kari looked at his hands and noticed they were empty. "Davis, where are my shoes?"

"Uh…sorry, Kari. I put them under the chair and I guess somebody stole them…"

Kari bit her lip in annoyance. They were one of her favorite pairs and even if she couldn't run in them anymore, she still planned to use them for casual wear. "Oh. It's okay, Davis. Don't worry about it!" she lied to him in order to keep him from feeling bad. Davis was a nice guy and she knew he didn't mean to lose them.

"Oh!" Davis exclaimed. "Here! Use my shoes!" Davis took off his sneakers and offered them to Kari in hopes that somehow, it would work out as a proper solution.

Kari laughed at Davis' naïve, but genuine concern. It was pretty adorable. "I don't think I can fit those, Davis, but thank you. And plus, you wouldn't have any shoes to wear either."

"It's okay, Kari! I'm a man! I can walk around in my socks—it aint no thang!" he declared proudly.

A knock was heard at the door. As Nurse Joy walked over to open the door, Sora rushed in with a pair of shoes in her hands.

"Kari! Are you okay? I had an extra pair of sandals in my locker for me to wear so I figured you could use my gym shoes for the rest of the day. The support is really good, too!" Sora said as she helped Kari put on the shoes.

"Thanks, Sora. You're a life saver," Kari said as she gave her best friend a hug.

"Well, I guess you won't need me anymore then?" Davis asked.

"I'll be fine! Thanks for all your help, Davis. I owe you!" Kari thanked him as she watched him leave the office.

"C'mon, let's get you to class," Sora said as she helped Kari stand back on her feet. Kari was so thankful that she had the best friend in the world.

"See you later, Nurse Joy! Thanks for the ankle wrap, too!" Kari said as she left the office with Sora.

"Thank you for coming! I hope that you will soon be restored to full health. We hope to see you again!" Nurse Joy said, bowing to them.

* * *

After school, Sora accompanied Kari to her locker to grab a few things before heading home. Once they arrived, they found Mimi and Yolei standing around with nervous looks on their faces.

"Hey, guys! How's it going?" Kari asked her two friends.

"Oh, nothing much!" Yolei spoke with hesitation in her voice. Mimi however, didn't say anything and stared at the ground with a guilty expression on her face.

"Is everything alright, Mimi?" Kari asked as she began to twist the combination on her lock.

"It's nothing," Mimi replied curtly as she looked off distantly.

As Kari opened the door to her locker, Kari's jaw immediately dropped as she stared at what was waiting for her inside her locker. Inside was her pair of pink shoes completely trashed and destroyed. White paint was splotched in various places with the words, "WHORE" and "SLUT" written all over. Kari turned around with watery eyes as she questioned them with a broken voice, "Who did this?"

There was a moment of silence as none of her friends said anything. However, a male voice was heard as none other than TK walked over.

"It was me," he said as he looked at her with distant eyes.

"What?" Kari asked in disbelief.

"I told you not to wear those and you didn't listen to me," TK responded with a shrug.

Kari was furious as she trembled in place. If she hadn't injured herself earlier that day, she would have attacked him with all that she had. "Seriously, TK? Can't you go one day without making my life hell? If that's your way of caring for me, I've got news for you, buddy, you're doing it wrong!" she screamed as she threw the shoes at him and walked away as fast as she could with Sora trailing behind her.

As they left, Sora turned around and watched with concern as she saw TK talk to Mimi and Yolei.

* * *

**Present ~ July 2012**

"Kari? We're here," TK said trying to nudge Kari out of her thoughts.

"Huh? Oh, yeah," she responded as she unbuckled her seatbelt and slipped out of his car.

TK sighed as he watched her take her exit and head toward the office building. Ever since he had told her about the new project, she had been ignoring him minus the occasional, "Yeah", "Okay", and "Sure", which was practically ignoring him as well. He knew that what had happened in high school had troubled her a lot but he didn't know it would affect her years down the road. He wanted to do something about it but he wasn't sure what to do. He prayed and hoped it wouldn't cause too much trouble for the meeting that day.

* * *

TK tightened up the neck of his tie to ensure he was clean and sharp before clearing his throat and beginning the meeting. "Thank you everybody for coming. We will now begin today's meeting," he said as he stood before the table of representatives from each team. "Could you please pull up the PowerPoint Presentation please, Kana?"

"Yes, Takeru," Kana replied with a wink. Kari rolled her eyes at her. Kana was TK's secretary who flirted with him every chance she got.

"Thanks, Kana!" he said as he pulled up a picture of three basketball players. "Since we are an athletic company that focuses on basketball and it's our job to know what goes on in the basketball world, I'd like to test you all on your knowledge of the NBA. Who here can name the three players up here on the screen?"

"Oh! I know this!" Kana said with excitement. "Isn't it Derrick Rose, Iman Shumpert, and Dwight Howard?"

"Yes, very good, Kana," TK praised her. He was surprised that she actually knew who they were. Then again, she always did her job well. "Now, can anyone tell me, what do these three basketball players have in common?"

"Didn't they all experience serious injuries during this year's NBA season? Derrick Rose and Iman Shumpert both tore their ACLs and Dwight Howard had a back injury," said Joe, the marketing manager of the company.

"That is correct Joe. And here is the most important question of all," TK began with an intense stare. "What shoe brand did each of these three players wear?"

The room was silent as no one was sure what the correct answer was.

"Don't worry guys, there's only three choices here," TK said to try to encourage them. He smiled as he saw Joe slowly raise his hand. "Yes, Joe?"

"Didn't they all wear Adidas?" he responded hesitantly.

"Exactly," TK replied with an approving nod towards Joe. "Remind me to give you a bonus for your paycheck this month."

Joe adjusted his glasses as he blushed at TK's offer. "It's nothing, boss! It's my job since I'm the marketing manager."

"Anyways," TK began again, "All around the world, the rumor of this 'Adidas Curse' has caused sales for Adidas basketball shoes to greatly decline. As a small company, I believe this is a great chance for us to use this opportunity to make it big in the industry. What do you guys think?"

The workers situated around the table began to turn to one another and nod their heads. To most people, it seemed like a great idea. However, for Kari, things were not so great. Even though she knew TK was not directing the presentation at her, the fact that they were discussing injuries due to bad shoes began to rub Kari the wrong way.

After seeing that most people were on board with him, TK continued with his presentation. "Last year, our sales of basketball shoes within Japan were decent for a small company. However, if we want to make it big and expand to the United States, we're going to have to make some changes.

"Earlier this year, we surveyed consumers from across the nation and came to the conclusion that even though our shoes do an excellent job in providing support, protection, and flexibility to maneuver up and down the court, they simply don't look good. That is why I decided to hire Kari who will be in charge of designing the look of the new shoes. What do you think Kari?" he asked while putting her on the spot.

"I…uh…" Kari stammered uncomfortably.

"Kari? Is everything alright?" TK asked with concern.

"No," she replied. "I'm not feeling well. Do you think I could leave early?" she asked, knowing it was completely idiotic of her to even ask something like that at such an important meeting.

TK sighed, not sure what he was supposed to do. In normal situations, he definitely wouldn't have let someone go but because it was a personal issue between the two, he felt conflicted. "Alright Kari. I'll see you later."

"Thanks," she said as she awkwardly got up, gathered her things, and quietly closed the door behind her. She knew she was going to be in a lot of trouble.

* * *

Kari pouted as she messed around on her computer. She felt awful, to say the least. She hit herself on the head for being unable to produce a proper answer to TK and could tell he was frustrated by her. She knew she was being immature, but the emotions that were taking over were keeping her from producing a single productive thought whatsoever.

"Hey, Kari." She turned around to see who it was that was talking to her. It was Izzy, the leader of the research team. "Takeru just wanted me to let you know that he wants to see you at his office right now."

Kari bit her lip in nervousness. She was so going to get demoted from her position—or even worse—fired. "And what if I don't want to see him?" she asked. She knew she had to see him eventually. She lived with him after all, but at the moment, she was not ready for such harsh news.

"He told me that if you refused to abide by his orders, he would be forced to cut your pay," he responded.

Kari sighed in relief. At least he wasn't thinking about firing her. But still, if she could avoid a pay cut, she was all for it. Hospital bills didn't pay themselves. "Alright, I'm coming," she said as she got out of her seat.

* * *

As Kari made her way to the door of TK's office, Kana got up from her desk and glared at Kari.

"Where do you think you're going?" she asked in a jealous tone. Kari knew Kana saw her as a threat. Though she knew she herself didn't have feelings for TK, she hated Kana and enjoyed seeing her squirm at the thought of how close she was with TK.

"I gotta go see TK, okay? Scram," Kari said as she proceeded to try and open the door. However, Kana refused to back down like a fat kid trying to save the last piece of cake for herself.

"First of all, his name is _Takeru. _Get it right! Second of all, you're not going in without an appointment," Kana demanded as she blocked the front door with her arms crossed.

"Dude, I freaking work here. Why would I need an appointment?" Kari was beginning to grow impatient. TK, after all, had forced her to come against her will and she was being forced to deal with this twit.

"Well, too bad. He's busy," she spat. Suddenly, the door behind her opened as she fell backwards into TK's arms. "Oh! I'm so sorry, Takeru," she apologized as she turned around to fix his tie. "I was trying to make her go away since I know you're so busy!" she said with a fake, sugary voice as she continued to flirt with him and wipe off the "dust" from his shirt as an excuse to touch him.

"It's okay, Kana. I actually have to talk to Kari about something," TK apologized to her with an understanding smile. He knew that she wanted him, however, he had to keep her around because she was not only excellent at her job, she had also been with him since the start of the company. "I hope you'll understand."

"Oh! I totally understand, Takeru. I'm so sorry if I caused you any trouble," Kana replied as she walked away and quickly glared at Kari when TK wasn't looking. Kari stuck her tongue out at her in response as she followed TK into his office.

* * *

Kari took a seat in front of TK's desk as she looked around at everything in the office except for his face. As usual, his office was completely organized and clean—just like his house—with everything filed properly and books arranged in alphabetical order. He was a neat freak. Kari smiled as she noticed there was a copy of _The Boy and the Little Light_ next to a picture of his mother at the top of a bookshelf. She found it sweet knowing how much he loved his mother. At least there was one person in his life that he knew how to be good to.

"Kari, we need to talk," he sighed, getting to the point. "This problem is seven years old and I think we're going to have to put an end to it as soon as possible."

"Yeah," Kari replied lifelessly.

"Look, Kari," TK began again as he folded his hands together on his desk. "I'm sorry about what happened and I really hope that—"

"I don't want to do it," Kari decided.

TK's eyes widened in surprise at her thoughtless decision. "What…?" he spoke in disbelief.

"This project. I don't want to do it, I'm sorry. That's all," she said with a monotone voice as she got out of her seat and made her way towards the door.

"Wait, Kari! I'm really sorry about what happened seven years ago, but don't you think you're being rash right now?

Kari quickly turned around and glared at him, her eyes lit with fury. "You know, I'm really surprised with you, _Takeru_. What's up with your secretary, Kana? I thought you hated sluts and whores."

"Kari…" TK lightly said her name, unsure of what else to say. Standing up for Kana was definitely not the best idea at the moment.

"Got nothing to say? Good. I'll be going now," she spoke coldly as she tried to make her way to the door again.

"Wait! Kari. I…have something to ask you," he pleaded with her.

"What?" she asked with a harsh tone, refusing to turn around to look at his face. She was scared that if she looked at him, she would be unable to leave.

"Mimi and Yolei…how are they? Have you been in contact with them lately?"

"No, I haven't," Kari responded without losing her coldness. "I haven't seen them in a few summers. I invited them to be my bridesmaids for my wedding but they ended up canceling because something came up." All of a sudden, her fury began to build again. "Don't try to change the subject, TK! I'm not going to work on this project for you!" she spoke with agitation. "I'm going now. I'll see you later tonight and don't try to stop me again," she commanded him while slamming the door behind her.

TK sighed as he winced at the sound of the door being shut. It was no surprise to him that she had lost contact with her two friends and knew she only became angrier because he had brought them up. He could tell that she was secretly very hurt by the loss of contact but refused to admit it herself. She was always that kind of friend—one that wanted to believe in the good of her friends and refused to doubt their loyalty. However, this only made things more difficult for him. TK hoped that somehow, things would be able to fix themselves without him needing to tell her the truth.

* * *

Kari ate her dinner in silence as TK walked into the kitchen surprised that she had actually made him food. As TK sat down and took the first bite, TK nearly choked as he immediately spat out the food. Kari laughed at him as TK downed a glass of water while he stared at the food before him. He figured she must have dumped a tablespoon of salt on his food because it was absolutely disgusting.

"Awww, TK. I thought you liked my food!" she mocked him with a fake smile. He could tell she was seething with anger on the inside.

"Oh yeah, of course. Love it," he said with a sheepish smile. "It's great, can't get enough," he lied as he struggled to take another bite of it. It was even worse.

TK took his fork and stole some of Kari's food and as he suspected, it was absolutely perfect.

"Hey! Don't steal my food!" she yelled at him and raised her fork as if threatening to attack him with it.

"Glad to see you're talking to me," he teased her happily as he continued to chew the delicious food he had taken from her plate.

As he was about to steal a bit more from her, the doorbell rang. TK looked towards the door confused. "I guess we have an unexpected visitor today," he said as he walked over to open the door. TK's eyes opened in shock as he saw who it was waiting for him at his doorstep. He could recognize that hairstyle and those eyes anywhere. "Matt…"

The man gave him a tired smile with an intense sigh of relief. "TK…it's really you…"

* * *

"So who's the girl?" Matt teased, quickly making things awkward as he made himself comfortable on the couch.

TK raised his eyebrow as he sat himself down as well. "After not seeing each other for nine or so years, this is the first thing you ask me?" TK asked with an amused expression on his face.

"Wow. Has it really been that long, TK? And of course! I'm your older brother. Even though it's been that long, that's one thing that hasn't changed. However, I'm pretty surprised to see that you're married already. You've even beaten me to it, you little punk!" he joked as he gave TK a light punch on the arm.

TK's face turned slightly red at Matt's comment. "Whoa there, Matt! Kari and I are not married, okay?" he stammered while trying to convince his brother.

"Oh, so Kari's her name?" Matt said as he chuckled at how uncomfortable his brother was becoming.

"It's not what you think, Matt. Really! It's complicated but I promise I'll explain later—"

"Does anybody need anything to drink?" Kari cut in, trying to be polite to the guest.

Matt smirked at TK as he saw her walk into the room. "No, I'm good. You must be Kari, right? Why don't you join us?" he asked as he shot TK an evil grin. However, this grin went unnoticed by TK as he kept his eyes preoccupied by the girl in the room.

TK frowned as he watched Kari accept Matt's request and sat in the one person couch across from the both of them. He felt awful knowing that she was already having a rough time with the work situation and now she would be put in an awkward position with his older brother who had the complete wrong idea of what was going on between them.

This however, did not go unnoticed by Matt as he looked at TK with an interested expression. Yes, it was true that he had been out of TK's life for a significant amount of time, but for all the years that he had known him, he had never seen TK look at anyone the way he looked at Kari.

"So, Matt," TK began, trying to make things much less awkward. "How did you find me?"

Matt lightly laughed, noticing his younger brother's desperate attempt to save the situation. "Well, dad's lawyer finally found me. I've been in the United States for a few years now so I guess it took them a while to hunt me down. He told me about our father's death and everything and so I decided to visit Tokyo to make sure you were doing alright. I'm sorry though, TK. If I had known three years before, I would have tried to make it back to see you as soon as possible."

"It's alright, Matt. I understand," TK assured his older brother. "I mean as you can see, I'm doing well and living peacefully under this roof."

"Yeah? Living peacefully under this roof with a girl? Sounds like a great life you've been living, TK," Matt teased and laughed as he noticed both of their faces had turned bright red at his comment.

As if to save the moment, TK's phone went off. "Oh shoot. Important business call, gotta take it," TK said as he sighed with relief. "I might be gone for a while so you two be nice to each other, okay?" he commanded them while giving Matt a look before picking up his phone and walking upstairs to his room.

After TK was out of sight, Matt crossed his legs and arms and leaned against the couch almost in a condescending manner. "So why are you messing around with my little brother's feelings and making life hard for him?" Forget being almost condescending. He was definitely being condescending.

"Excuse me?" Kari asked, shocked at his upfront behavior.

"I'm really curious actually," he began again while leaning forward and resting his arms against his knees. "Do you like TK?"

"Wow, you're not frank at all," she retorted sarcastically.

"Just answer the question please, miss." He was right. Stalling her answer only made her more suspicious.

"No, I don't," she answered curtly.

"Then you can leave this home, please," he said as he pointed to the door.

"What?" she asked in an insulted manner. Matt was so different from TK that it made her head spin. She couldn't believe he had the nerve to be so rude with her.

"Look," he said to her with an intense expression, "I'm TK's big brother and I really care about him. I don't want to see him get hurt and so it really troubles me seeing my brother open up his house to a girl that one, is not his girlfriend, two, claims to not have any feelings for him whatsoever, and three, is freeloading off his food and property."

Kari's blood began to boil. She knew he was his older brother, but she still couldn't believe he was being so blunt with her. "Whoa there, buddy, I do _not_ freeload. In case you haven't heard, I work for TK." She swore, she was ready to jump up from her seat and attack.

"Doesn't matter. You could work for him at a value well beyond the food he buys and the taxes he has to pay to live here, but no money can ever replace the time and effort it takes for him to have to take care of you. I don't even have to know the history between the two of you to know that a girl like you needs a lot of caring for."

Kari was speechless. She wanted to yell at him for being rude but at the same time, she knew that part of it was true. She did take up a lot of his time and space. Kari began to feel guilty as she realized how much TK had to babysit her—especially for her emotional needs. Not only was he dealing with a heartbroken girl who was dumped on her wedding day, but he was also dealing with an emotional girl who was unable to let go of things from the past. Maybe she really was being too rash at work today.

Matt sighed as he noticed her hurt expression and relaxed his body a bit on the couch. "I'm sorry. It's a habit for me to lose my cool when it comes to TK," he admitted.

"It's okay. I have an older brother too and he's kinda like that also," she replied with an awkward smile. It was a bit difficult to save the atmosphere but she decided to give it a try.

"I don't know, it's just hard for me. I've been out of his life for such a long time now and feel like I should have taken care of him more. Now that I get to see him again, I see this guy who's all grown up and able to take care of himself. And then there's you, this girl that I've never seen before that he treats so well. It's just crazy, you know what I mean?"

"It's okay, Matt. Trust me. I went through high school with him and he was sort of troublesome- especially to me. He loved to give me a hard time," she reminisced.

"Really? I'm surprised. By the way I've seen him look at you, it would seem like hurting you was the last thing he would ever want to do," Matt replied with a confused expression.

Kari wasn't exactly sure what to say to this and decided to smile awkwardly instead. Lucky for her, TK walked in from his business call. Perfect timing once again.

"Hey, guys! I'm back!" TK greeted, noticing the tense atmosphere. "You guys get along while I was gone?"

"Yeah, absolutely," Kari lied with an uncomfortable smile.

"Great! So what did I miss?"

"Nothing much," Matt replied as he began to stare off into space. It was clear that he was deep in thought about something.

"Yeah. We pretty much talked about nothing," Kari laughed awkwardly. "Actually, I think I'm gonna go now. It's kinda late-ish so I'll be going to bed soon. It was nice to meet you, Matt," Kari said politely before waving goodnight to TK.

"Goodnight, Kari. I'll see you tomorrow morning." Once he heard the sound of her door shut, TK turned to look at his brother who was smirking at him. "So did the two of you really not talk about anything?" TK asked, giving Matt a skeptical look. TK knew Kari too well to not know she was lying to him earlier.

"Nothing that would interest you I guess," he lied as he looked into TK's unbelieving eyes. "Anyways, I have something important to tell you," Matt said, changing the topic. "I actually just got engaged and will be getting married next summer. That was part of why I came back too. The reason why dad's lawyer was able to find me was because I had to use my name to find out where you were living so I could tell you about my engagement."

"Wow! Really, Matt? That's great to hear!" he congratulated his older brother. "What's she like?"

"She's wonderful. The day I met her, I knew life would never be the same if I ever lost her. I'm sure you've known the feeling for a while now, am I right, TK?" Matt asked with a knowing smile.

"I…" TK responded, unsure of what to say.

"So when are you going to tell her?" Matt questioned him further. He was really enjoying the reaction he was getting from his little brother.

"Wait…what?" TK asked as he continued to struggle to find words to speak.

"Judging from the conversation I had with her, she has no clue how you feel about her. And by the looks of it, she's the kind of girl that will never figure it out unless she's told. Man, those girls are always so much trouble," Matt chuckled to himself.

"Matt…I…"

"Wow, maybe I really shouldn't have left home for so long," Matt sighed as he stretched out his body and smiled at the ceiling. "Boy, the money I would pay to have seen the day Takeru Takaishi fell in love with Kari."

* * *

Kari made her way into her room and shut the door behind her. She slid down with her back against the door as she tried to fully comprehend her intense conversation with Matt. However, after failed attempts to understand and accept Matt's observations, she decided that she really was tired and turned off the lights. Maybe her head would work better the next morning.

Kari tossed and turned in bed for half an hour before being able to fall asleep. Once she finally began to doze off, a blurry image of two angels, one male and one female, appeared in her head.

'Whoa this is trippy,' Kari thought to herself though she was certain no one had slipped her any acid recently.

* * *

**Past ~ March 2005**

TK watched from his desk by the window as he saw Kari sprinting towards the school once again. Having a classroom that faced the front of the school served as a form of entertainment as he was able to see everything that went on near the school's front gate every morning. He chuckled as he saw Kari's frantic figure making her way into the school. 'Silly girl,' he thought to himself, 'she probably doesn't know she's not actually late.'

A few minutes later, the door slammed open and Kari burst into the classroom panting. As if by instinct, TK got out of his seat and took a couple steps towards the door. Halfway there, he stopped as he remembered he had to keep a distance away from her. He watched her with concern as she talked to Sora about her morning and realized she had set her watch ahead by ten minutes. He laughed silently as he realized he was right after all.

The next thing he knew, Kari was walking towards him without looking. He heard her squeal as she ran into him and TK reached out his hands to keep her from falling.

* * *

**One Week Later **

TK walked towards his locker after basketball practice. It was the day before the pep rally and the team was instructed by the dean on what they had to do to prepare for the next day. As he passed through the lockers, he heard the sound of two girls talking and decided to hide behind the lockers to eavesdrop. Normally, this wasn't his kind of thing but their current topic of discussion was something he always took interest to. It was about Kari.

"Seriously, Yolei. I don't think I can stand Kari any longer," came the first voice. TK's jaw dropped as he realized that it was Mimi.

"But Mimi, Kari's been our friend forever. We grew up together and everything," Yolei responded while trying to be sympathetic.

"I know, but things have changed. She's been getting the attention of half the basketball team and it's driving me crazy."

"I don't know…I mean she's a pretty girl…"

"So what? Look at me! I'm pretty too! And you too of course," Mimi added to make Yolei feel better. "But seriously. Haven't you noticed that she has TK, Willis, and Davis tied around her finger? It drives me nuts!"

"Well, Willis and Davis, I can see. They're both sort of tools in their own ways…But TK? They just fight all the time."

"That's not true. It's so obvious that TK is in love with her. He doesn't talk to anybody. I tried talking to him the first month he moved here and he ignored me every single time. That jerk is so cold! But yet Kari gets every ounce of his attention." TK smirked at her comment. Was it really that obvious?

"You know, Mimi. I never thought about it that way, but it is true. It's kind of strange that TK makes fun of her all the time and ignores everyone else," Yolei pondered.

"It's okay. You're not the only dense one. She clearly has no clue what TK feels about her," Mimi said with a sigh. Kari had always been clueless when it came to boys since boys were capable of liking girls back in the junior high. "Say, Yolei. Don't you like that Ken boy? Isn't he on the basketball team too?"

Yolei's face brightened at the thought of him, "Shhh! You know it's a secret, Mimi!" Yolei whispered while trying to silence her best friend.

"Just think about it. Kari has the attention of half the basketball team. That means they talk about her, and the more they talk about her, the more likely Ken will take notice of her. This means we have to stop her. Make her lose her confidence or something," Mimi suggested as she pulled out a mirror to try to fix her hair.

Yolei sighed. Mimi was right. She didn't want to lose her chances with Ken. "Alright, Mimi. You've got me. How should we do it?"

TK had had enough of their conversation as his blood began to boil at the thought of it. He had no idea girls could be so evil as to turn against their childhood friend. TK walked over to his locker to pack up his stuff. From the corner of his eye, he could see Kari walking home from school. After quickly putting away his things, he decided to chase after her.

"Kari!" TK said as he caught up to her.

Kari looked at him with a confused face. "Don't you have basketball practice or something right now?" she asked him.

"We finished a little while ago. I have something to tell you. I think that…that…" he started but ended up pausing to think it over quickly.

"Yes, what is it, TK?" TK sighed and decided to drop it. He couldn't tell her that her best friends actually hated her. It just didn't feel right. He knew how much Kari loved Mimi and Yolei and he couldn't find it in him to be the one to say it. He decided to make fun of her instead to cover it up.

"I think that tomorrow will be a lot of fun, don't you think, Kar? You get to do a cheer in front of the entire school! And knowing the kind of klutz you are, you're definitely bound to do something embarrassing," he teased hoping that would be enough to convince her.

"Sorry, TK. I'd love to, but I'm not in the mood to fight right now. Next time you talk to me, make sure it's actually important and not something stupid," she responded with a glare and walked away from him.

TK watched her walk away from a distance as he began to think about what Mimi and Yolei had said at the lockers. Hopefully nothing bad would actually happen.

* * *

The day of the pep rally came as TK leaned against his seat in the first row of the bleachers and watched Davis pass out water to everyone on the team. One of the boys on the team patted Davis on the back as he received water from him.

"Thanks man. Remember that you're our starting small forward, not our water boy. You really don't have to do this," he thanked him as he took a sip of his water.

"Don't worry about it! I figured everyone needs some water before we have to play," Davis said with the same foolish grin he always carried. Davis' grin grew even larger as he saw Kari walk into the gymnasium and ran up to her to greet her. Soon after, Willis followed suit and joined the two.

TK watched the three with distant eyes as he saw Willis put his arm around Kari, much to her discomfort. TK sighed, it was a relief she wasn't smart enough to figure out that they both had crushes on her. As Kari made her way past TK, he turned his head away to avoid making eye contact with her and quickly began to watch her again as soon as her back was facing him.

As Kari began to walk away from Willis and Davis, TK noticed that she was wearing the pink shoes again. Hopefully she wouldn't actually hurt herself like he had joked with her yesterday. But no matter how hard he tried, he was unable to let the worry slip from his mind.

* * *

TK watched the volunteers cheer with an amused look on his face. It was pretty much the worst cheer he had ever heard in his life and it was even funnier as he watched Kari struggle through it. She was clearly not having a good time. As the volunteers jumped up at the end, the whole entire gym was silenced as Kari fell to the ground.

A part of TK's heart broke as he watched Kari lay on the ground in pain. It was during these moments that keeping a distance was most difficult—he wanted nothing more than to be the one at her side helping her out. Instead, he watched as Willis carried her out of gym with Davis.

From the corner of his eye, he noticed Mimi and Yolei walk out of the gym to follow them. 'This can't be good,' TK thought as he cursed under his breath and decided to follow them as well. If he couldn't be there to help Kari out in her physical pain, he could at least be the one to save her from any emotional pain.

* * *

"I can't believe Kari would be dumb enough to leave her shoes outside of the nurse's office," Mimi scoffed as she tossed the shoes onto a table.

"Wait, so why did we have to sneak into this art classroom?" Yolei asked as she watched Mimi take something out of a cabinet.

"Because we need this," Mimi replied with an evil grin as she held up a can of white paint and a couple of brushes.

* * *

TK raced through the halls as he checked every room for signs of Mimi and Yolei. While trying to follow the two girls earlier, he was stopped by Dean Matsumoto who wanted to congratulate him and give him his prize for winning the three-point contest. Unfortunately, once he made it out of the gym, Mimi and Yolei were nowhere to be found.

As he turned the corner, the voices of two girls could be heard. It had to be them.

"Do you think writing down 'WHORE' on her shoes is okay, Mimi?" Yolei asked as she looked at the harsh word written multiple times over Kari's shoes.

"You're right. We should add 'SLUT' too," Mimi responded as she began to destroy the pair of shoes even further. Yolei sighed as she watched her friend do the dirty work. She was still slightly uncomfortable with the situation but she wasn't sure how to stop her friend.

All of a sudden, the sound of the door slamming open caused Mimi and Yolei to drop their brushes and turn their eyes over to TK who was panting at the doorway.

"What the heck do you guys think you're doing?" he spoke harshly as he walked toward them.

"TK…it's not what you think," Yolei stammered as she tried to find the right words to say.

TK took one look at the shoes and scoffed at them. He stared at the two with an intense glare as he felt his fists clench. "And you girls dare to look at Kari in the face and call her your friend? You two disgust me."

"Go away, TK. You wouldn't understand," Mimi spat at him and matched his glare.

TK kicked the leg of table, causing the two girls to freak out. "What's there to understand about this?" he asked as he pointed to the destroyed pair of shoes. "When did Kari _ever_ deserve the title of a slut or a whore? Tell me. I'm on the basketball team and I have never seen her play around with a single guy."

Yolei began to cry as TK yelled at her. She knew he was right and the guilt was taking over her. Not even Mimi could say anything back to him.

"This is what you two are going to do. You're going to show these to Kari after school and you're going to confess and apologize. You hear? The worst part is that I know she's going to forgive you two because she's that good of a friend," TK sighed with a depressed expression. "I hope you two will realize some day how much she didn't deserve this," he finished as he walked out of the room and slammed the door behind him.

Unknown to the three of them, Sora was secretly watching from afar everything that was going on. As she noticed TK come out of the room, she quickly turned around to escape to her locker. Kari would need a new pair of shoes for the rest of the day.

* * *

TK watched from behind the lockers as Kari approached her locker with Sora. Mimi and Yolei were standing uncomfortably waiting for her.

"Hey, guys! How's it going?" he heard Kari ask her friends. He listened as they exchanged their awkward greetings. TK braced himself as he heard sound of Kari's locker opening. There was a gut wrenching silence in the air as he heard Kari's hurt voice speak. It was one of the hardest words he had ever had to listen to. "Who did this?"

As no one said a word, TK stepped forward from behind the lockers. He knew he was being stupid and was sure his decision would haunt him again sometime in the future. But for some reason, he knew that he had to take the hit.

"It was me," he said as he looked at her with distant eyes.

"What?" Kari asked in disbelief.

"I told you not to wear those and you didn't listen to me," TK responded with a shrug.

"Seriously, TK? Can't you go one day without making my life hell? If that's your way of caring for me, I've got news for you buddy, you've got it all wrong!" she screamed as she threw the shoes at him and walked away as fast as she could with Sora trailing behind her.

TK turned around and shot a menacing glare at the two girls, causing them to stiffen in place. "I decided to let you guys get away with it this time. I figured Kari didn't deserve to know what kind of awful friends she had," he said with his arms crossed. "I better not catch you two doing something like this ever again." The two girls gave him guilty nods as they watched TK pick up Kari's shoes on the ground and walk away.

* * *

TK put his phone to his ear as he walked through the front door of his house. He listened to the ringer go off while he waited for his father to pick up his phone.

"What's up, Takeru? I'm kinda busy right now so make this quick," his father said on the other line.

"Hey Dad," TK responded as he opened the door to his father's office. "I was just wondering where you keep the extra phones you use for emergencies. I need to borrow one."

* * *

"Hello! Welcome to Kacy's Shoes. Were you looking for anything specific?" asked the sales lady near the front of the store. He could tell she was trying to be polite and didn't expect him to actually buy anything. He didn't blame her though. The shoes were quite expensive and it was unlikely that a teenage boy had the money to make a purchase at the store.

"Yes, I was wondering where I could fine running shoes for women," TK said while trying to look around for them himself.

"We have some in the back, if you'd like to follow me. I can show you," she said sweetly as she guided him to the other side of the shop.

TK looked through the collection of shoes trying to find something Kari would like. A certain shoe caught his eye. It looked very similar to the ones Kari had owned except they were in yellow.

"_I wanted to get the ones in yellow but they didn't have my size so I got these pink ones instead but they're still cute regardless!"_

"I'll buy these," he told the sales lady as he pointed to the yellow shoes. "They're perfect."

"Great!" she said, surprised he was actually going to buy something. "Do you know what size your girlfriend wears?"

TK smirked at her comment before responding. "Umm, I'm actually not entirely sure." Earlier he had tried to find the size on Kari's pink shoes but because there was so much paint, he was unable to find the number. TK took off his right shoe to show the sales lady the bottom where he had traced Kari's own shoe with permanent marker. "Will this work?"

The sales lady laughed at his adorable effort as she took his shoe and brought it to the back of the store.

* * *

The next night, Kari sat at her desk doodling in her notebook after many failed attempts to finish her homework. She decided to put off her work for later because after all, AP stood for Advanced Procrastination. Kari rested her head against her arms as she stared off into space. Kari didn't know why it still bothered her after two days and found it difficult to understand why TK had done what he did. She knew he loved to tease her; he did it all the time and she was almost used to it too. Yet, this was a completely different level for TK. Being called a whore and slut was no joke—it was almost unlike him to do such a thing.

All of a sudden, her cell phone went off. She checked her phone and saw there was an incoming message from an unknown number.

"_Hi Kari. Check your front door."_

She couldn't deny it. It was a bit creepy but she decided to respond. "_Who is this?"_

"_Somebody that cares about you, Kari. Please open the door."_

"_Why?"_

"_You're a courageous girl who does crazy things. That's why I know you'll come out to the front door right now."_

Whoever was texting her was right. She really was that crazy because before she knew it, she was already downstairs.

"_I'm coming out now." _she texted back. As she opened the door, Kari saw a box with a letter on top. It was definitely not what she was expecting. She gasped as she opened the box and found a pair of yellow sneakers similar to the ones she had wanted when she was shopping a month ago. However, she could tell the quality was way better by the material making the shoes even cuter than the ones she had seen before. After putting the shoes back in the box, she opened the letter and read it out loud quietly to herself.

"_Kari—I heard that you haven't been yourself lately so I hope the shoes and this letter will bring a smile to your face! Please realize that you are a beautiful girl inside and out and you deserve to be treated well. No matter what words people will use against you, know that there are people like me who know that you are truly a person to be admired. Please keep these shoes as a reminder for yourself that there will always be someone out there who cares."_

Kari put down the letter and stared up into the night sky with a smile on her face. She breathed in the night air as she replayed the contents of the letter in her head.

TK smiled as he looked down at the phone and saw Kari's last text to him that night. "_Thank you. They're very pretty. :) I will treasure them forever."_

* * *

**Present ~ July 2012**

Kari sat up on her bed in a daze. After attempting to process everything she had learned from her dream, she was completely clueless on what to think. She never forgot about the night she had the shoes at her front door. In fact, they were still sitting on a shelf at her old house because, after all, it was a special memory that had practically saved her from a very depressing night. Kari always wondered who it was that texted her that night and was always thankful to whoever it was. She just never imagined that it would be TK of all people.

Kari sighed as she realized Matt was right—he was way too good to her. Kari groaned as she curled up in bed. After all the crap she had given TK at work today, she felt terrible. She always believed that TK didn't care about her feelings but the truth was that he was always paying attention to her needs. She couldn't deny it and she felt incredibly selfish.

Kari slipped out of bed and peeked downstairs into the kitchen. Her heart sank as she saw TK up late at 2 AM trying to research shoe designs. Her guilty conscience got the best of her as she watched TK do the job she was supposed to do.

"TK…" she called out to him in a small voice. Her heart dropped even more as TK turned around and she saw his weary eyes look at her with worry.

"Are you okay, Kari?" he asked as he walked up to her. He was incredible. She had scolded him, told him she wouldn't do her job, given him the cold shoulder the whole day, and he was still caring for her.

"You should have told me it wasn't you, you idiot."

TK was surprised as Kari reached out to him and hugged him around his torso with her head buried in his chest.

"I'm so sorry, TK," she apologized to him with a sad voice. "I shouldn't have yelled at you like I did today. I'll promise to do my job—and I'll do a really good job too." She looked up at him with wide eyes as she saw him smile warmly at her.

TK chuckled as he reached down with one hand to brush her hair away from her face so that he knew that she could see the gentle smile in his eyes. "I know you will."

* * *

**A/N**: I'm basically a writing machine. I'm not really sure how I got this one out so fast but I guess I'm just as caught up in this story as you guys are. I thought this chapter was okay. The idea sounded better in my head, but maybe you guys liked it. :)

Sorry if you guys had no idea what was going on during the basketball rant during the business meeting. Yes, they're all real basketball players and those things actually happened this year. It fit in with the story so I decided to use it. And sorry if I put salt on any wounds by bringing up those injuries. :( I'm a huge Bulls fan so I'm depressed about Drose being out for a year as well, and I really respect Iman Shumpert as a defender. Not Dwight Howard though. I hope he gets sent to the Bobcats.

Oh and Nurse Joy gets a cameo! A shout out to my fellow 90's kids out there! Did anyone catch the "We hope to see you again!" line? xD hehehe

If you ever want to know when the next update will be, I always update my profile when I've hit a milestone in my writing! So be sure to check it out. I also added updates about my writing plans for the future too haha….

Interesting Fact: I play sappy Asian music when I write the romance scenes. It helps so much! Gotta be in the mood to create the mood. heehee. xP

That's all! To my very, very, very few but very awesome reviewers, this one was for you! Hope you liked the chapter even though there wasn't too much fluff.

Please review! :) If you don't know what to say, let me know what you guys think about Davis since we know he's the one Kari was about to marry. And there's Matt too! Do you guys think he's a good big brother to TK or is he just a huge troll? :P Let me know what you guys think! Or you can just say really nice things. ;)


	5. Chapter 5 One Year Ago

**A/N:** A short and bittersweet chapter coming your way! It's a side story actually, but still very important to the plot. And no, it's not a dream that Kari's having. It's a straight-up, story from the past.

Enjoy! :D

* * *

**One year ago ~ September 2011**

A knock was heard at the door as TK sat at his office reading through a few documents. "Come in." TK looked up to see Kana walking through his door. "Yes, Kana?"

"I finished typing up the document you told me to write and emailed it to you to review! Oh, and I just wanted to remind you that your lunch break is in a few minutes," Kana said with a polite smile.

"Thank you, Kana. Great job, as always. Why don't you go get some food right now as well to reward yourself?" TK suggested as he got up from his chair and started to organize a few things on his desk.

"Um…" Kana began as she blushed slightly. "I was wondering if you wanted to get food together."

"I'm sorry," TK apologized. "I'm actually waiting on someone's call to accept a position with our company and he might call in at any time. I hope you can understand," he said as he walked over and gave her an apologetic smile.

"Oh, it's okay, Takeru! Maybe next time!" she said optimistically as she walked back to her desk outside his office.

* * *

TK looked through a newspaper as he took a sip of his coffee. He felt strange the way he was dressed in a suit, flipping through a newspaper as if he were some hot-shot, successful business man. There were a few articles about the business world he had gone through but nothing was really exciting. That seemed to be what his life was like these days—it was mundane and boring—nothing was exciting. Maybe he shouldn't have finished school so quickly. TK sighed as he allowed his mind to wander about the days where life seemed more worth living for. He smiled bitterly at that thought; what was he living for anymore?

"Here's your copy of the check and your card, sir," said the waitress as she returned the credit card to TK.

"Thank you, miss," he responded politely as he took his card and put it back in his wallet. As TK got up from his seat and headed towards the exit, he noticed, out of the window, a girl on the other side of the street with a familiar bob of brown hair and a cheerful smile that he could never forget. "It couldn't be…" he whispered to himself as he picked up his pace and charged out the door.

TK ran across the street, much to the displeasure of a few drivers who began to honk at him. "Sorry!" TK shouted as he received a few middle fingers. It didn't matter too much to him as he refused to take his eyes away from the girl that was walking a few stores ahead of him.

Before he knew it, he had been following this girl for a good five minutes and since he had seen her from the restaurant, his heartbeat refused to slow down. As he followed her, memories of high school began to flood back to him as he remembered every moment and second that he had spent watching her from afar—just like he was doing now.

It had been so long since he had felt such a strange feeling in his heart. It almost felt foreign, and yet, his heart seemed to gladly welcome it back in as if it was a long lost piece of his heart that had gone missing. TK was always confident in many things due his natural ability to succeed, but nothing in the world ever made him feel so insecure and so vulnerable the way she made him feel. And he still had yet to see her face forward that day. Who would have known that in such a big city like Tokyo, he would run into her again?

TK was startled by the sound of his cell phone going off as he was welcomed back to reality from his thoughts. "Shoot," TK whispered as he realized who it was. It was a call from the person he was seeking to recruit. TK picked up his phone as he continued to watch the girl he was following from afar. "Hello? This is Takeru Takaishi speaking," he answered as he muttered his name so that the girl had no way of hearing it.

"Hi! This is Izzy Koushiro calling about the offer for the position. I'd like to meet up with you right now if it's okay with you. I'm near Carey's Café," spoke the voice on the phone.

All of a sudden, TK's heart seemed to stop as they reached the end of the block and the girl turned the corner. He was finally able to see her face and there was no way he couldn't recognize her. It was definitely Kari. Suddenly, every emotion that he had ever felt because of her, every blissful feeling, every moment of heartache, and every ounce of longing, seemed to rush back to him at warp speed. He wanted to follow her but the weight of his heart seemed to keep him cemented to the ground.

"Hello? Mr. Takaishi? Are you there?" came his voice again.

TK shook his head before responding again, "Oh, sorry. Yes. Carey's Café? I just passed it a couple minutes ago. I…" TK's voice began to trail again as he thought about the split second he had just seen Kari's face again for the first time in years. Was it worth it? "I'll see you soon."

* * *

TK sat in his chair with a pit in his stomach as he talked to Izzy. Of course, they were sitting in a coffee shop where the owner's name was almost exactly the same as Kari's. TK started to wonder if he had truly made the right choice because, after all, he had heard rumors about this man. According to his sources, he was a genius and could possibly be one of his company's most valuable assets. If things went well with this meeting and Izzy decided to join him, his business could possibly become very successful in the future.

"So, Mr. Koushiro, have you decided on your answer to my offer?" TK asked.

"Well, Mr. Takaishi, you can just call me Izzy," he responded with a smile on his face.

"Wait, what?" TK said with a surprised look. He wasn't used to such friendliness working in the business world.

"I just figured you should call me Izzy now that we're going to be working together," Izzy said as he extended his hand towards TK.

"Wow, really? You're going to accept the offer without needing any further discussion?" TK asked with a mixture of disbelief and relief as he gladly accepted Izzy's handshake.

"Yes. I've thought about it a lot already and I've always wanted to be a part of a small company that is seeking to grow into a larger business. Plus, I did my research and I really respect what your company stands for. I believe that I will be a good fit, if I do say so myself, Mr. Takaishi."

"Takeru is good and thank you for accepting the offer. I'm very excited to work with you," TK said while feeling slightly bitter that the deal was settled so quickly. It could have been dealt with on the phone and he wouldn't have lost Kari.

"Thank you, Takeru. I had a feeling I needed to accept your offer quickly because you seemed like you needed to hear some good news," Izzy began. "When I saw you walk in, I noticed you were looking rather, well, pale."

TK cleared his throat, slightly embarrassed that his emotions were written all over his face. It was never good to appear so exposed during a business meeting that it was a relief that Izzy was such a good person. "It's nothing," TK replied while trying to awkwardly brush it off.

"If you say so," Izzy said with an eyebrow raised as he took his left hand and reached for his cup. As Izzy sipped his coffee, TK noticed the wedding band on his ring finger.

"So, you're married?" TK inquired, figuring he should get to know his new coworker.

"Oh, yes I am!" he responded cheerfully with a flustered laugh. TK smiled as he could tell by his reaction that he was truly happy and very much in love. "I got married a few months ago. Life couldn't be any better. Everything was like a movie, actually."

"Oh, really?" TK asked, eager to hear more.

"Yes. We had been together for a few years and all of a sudden, I got a huge deal with a company in the States. They were offering me a huge salary but my wife had a job here in Tokyo already. It was difficult and my parents wanted me to take the deal but I thought about life without my wife and I realized…" he paused as he began to make a face that didn't go unnoticed by TK. It was filled with a certain emotion of longing that TK had seen many times within himself.

"I realized that there was no way I could live without her," he continued as he looked at TK with a smile. "And now we're happily married and I don't regret it at all!" Izzy said as he returned to his cheerful, flustered laughter.

TK sat there not sure of what to say as the image of Kari returned to his thoughts. After hearing Izzy's sacrifice for his wife, he began to regret his decision more and more. What if Izzy had actually left for America? Would he still be the same happy, blubbering, crazy-in-love man he saw in front of him? One thing was for sure, though—he had definitely made a mistake.

"Takeru? Are you sure you're alright?" Izzy asked with concern as he observed that TK appeared to be in a state of panic

TK immediately stood up from his seat and grabbed his things. "I'm so sorry, Izzy, but I have to go. And you're right, I'm not okay," TK said as he stared at him with an intense gaze. "I might have just lost the girl that I…I…" he stammered unsure of what to say.

"Go get her," Izzy said as TK said a quick thank you and ran out the door. Izzy chuckled as he took another sip of his coffee. "He'll thank me some day," he said to himself with a proud smile.

* * *

TK had been running through the streets for what seemed like half an hour and still, there was no sign of Kari. After a while, he began to wonder why he was still trying after realizing that the size of the task was as large as Tokyo itself. He began to slow down, giving up on his search as he dwelled in his feeling of regret. The people at the office were probably all wondering where he was by now. Boy would they be happy to hear that he was too busy chasing after a girl.

As TK slowly strolled through the streets, a display at a bridal shop caught his eye. Before him was a beautiful wedding dress that seemed to glow before him. He felt almost silly staring since he was a man, but after hearing Izzy's story just now, he couldn't help but let his thoughts dwell on marriage.

He remembered the days as a boy when his mother would tell him that loneliness was the worst feeling in the world and that there was nothing more tragic than dying alone. It was funny how media and pop culture portrayed the idea that all you needed in life was money, fame, and fortune to be happy and that a lover was just an accessory to hold your arm and pose with in a picture. His father had piles of money and was revered by others and yet, without someone by his side, he had completely fallen apart. It was unfortunate that his life seemed to be heading in a similar direction with nothing much to live for other than his job. It felt empty.

Throughout college, he had considered such thoughts about marriage and his future from time to time. He even decided to accept dates for the first time in his life by girls who had asked him out. However, date after date, he couldn't seem to connect with any girl. Sure, he had met some very nice ones that were a pleasure to talk to, but he never found himself romantically attached to a single one. He felt horrible and always seemed to end ties quickly because he felt bad knowing there was no way he could ever feel as strongly as they did for him.

TK had spent days and weeks in deep thought at why his heart refused to accept the girls who were waiting patiently for him until one day, he realized that it was simply because it was impossible. He had already given away everything a long time ago and there was no way he would get it back. There was, and would always be, only one girl he would ever want.

Ever since the day he had met her, she had become a haunting light in his eyes and in his heart. Simply by the way she lived her life, loving and caring for those around her, seemed to lift him out of a hole he had been stuck in for what seemed like forever. He had forgotten what love was for a very long time but the very essence of who she was had given him strength to live that he had not known since the days his mother was still alive.

Without her in his life again, life had been very difficult. He had constantly contemplated what he was living for after college. He practically had no family anymore and his friends from college had already gone their own ways. His ambitions were already being lived out but seemed to only make him realize his loneliness even more. It was official—he needed his life back. He needed _her_. TK promised himself that if somehow, he would be able to see her again that day, there would be no way he would let her out of his sight again.

Suddenly, from beyond the window display, he saw a red-headed girl walk out from the back of the bridal shop. TK's heart immediately began to panic as he realized that he knew who she was. He knew her from high school—it was Sora—and next to her was a brunette girl facing away from him in a wedding dress. TK cursed under his breath knowing that there was only one brunette girl in the world Sora would be at a bridal shop with. Sora was with Kari. He did not see this coming.

TK's world began to fall apart bit by bit as he saw the girl in the wedding dress turn to the side as she smiled cheerfully at her best friend. It was a bittersweet moment as he gazed at how beautiful she looked in that dress. And soon, she would be walking down the aisle in that dress to meet face-to-face with a man that was not him. It was a shame that TK would have to break his promise to himself already.

Afraid they would see him, TK walked away as quickly as he could while his heart began to increase its pace at, what seemed to him to be, threefold the speed. His fists tightened as he attempted to stomach the regret that was rapidly taking over every part of his being.

TK jumped in surprise as his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a girl's voice calling his name from behind him.

* * *

"So? What do you think?" Kari asked as she stared at herself in the mirror. It was so weird seeing herself in a wedding dress and couldn't believe she was growing up so fast. It almost felt like yesterday that she was still an elementary student playing in the park with her older brother Tai.

"Wow! You look gorgeous, Kari. You make the dress look better on you, too!" Sora said as she walked out of the dressing room to see her best friend.

"Thanks, Sora! I really like this one," Kari said as she smiled at Sora with an excited expression.

Suddenly, Sora's eyes widened in surprise as she noticed a familiar face from the window of the shop. Was it really him?

"Sora?" Kari asked her best friend with concern. "What are you looking at?" Kari turned her head to see what Sora was staring at but before she could, Sora quickly turned Kari around and pushed her towards the changing room.

"Oh, nothing," Sora replied with a nervous laugh. "I was just thinking about how I really wanna see you in that other dress we were looking at earlier. You know? The one with the really pretty bow on it? Yeah go try it on!" Sora's heart began to race at the thought of TK suddenly showing up in Kari's life and knew that it would probably not be a good idea if she knew he saw her like this.

"Uh…are you sure, Sora? I just put this one on," Kari said, confused at Sora's behavior.

"Yes! I'm very sure!" Sora almost shouted as she pushed Kari into the dressing room and ran out of the store.

* * *

"TK!" He turned around to see Sora running towards him with a frantic face. "Wow, it's really you! I didn't know you were still in Tokyo."

"Yeah, I've been around for a couple years now," he responded.

The broken look on his face didn't go unnoticed by Sora. "You saw her, didn't you," she said with a sigh.

"Yeah. She looks beautiful," TK stated with a distant look.

"She does, doesn't she." Sora frowned as she saw the sad smile on his face and realized he still had not forgotten her after so many years. "Look, TK," Sora began again as she took a sheet of small paper from her purse and wrote her number down. "We should meet up sometime and talk. I'm sure you're curious about what's been going on with her lately," she said as she handed him the piece of paper.

TK reluctantly took it from her, unsure of how he felt about meeting up with her just to be confirmed about the truth that was already plain to him. "Yeah, sure. I'll call you," he said with a polite smile and walked away.

On his way back to the office, TK frowned as he stared out the window of the taxi and absorbed the bustling view of city. This would be his last few moments to dwell on his heartache before he would be forced to return to his life at his job.

He realized that life was truly, quite cruel. Since he had met her, he always believed that as long as he still had hope, things would be okay and there would always be a chance that someday she would be his. However, at that very moment, he was unsure if hope itself would be powerful enough to make such an impossible dream come true. His heart felt hollow as every ounce of hope for love he had ever had seemed to dissipate into thin air because after all, the only girl he had ever wanted was Kari, and now, she could never be his.

* * *

**A/N**: That's all. Sorry if that was really sad. :( But I'm really happy with how this chapter turned out. The story has been very Kari POV heavy so far and felt like I should give TK some love and allow myself to explore his character some more since he is very important too. :)

So this story is actually coming to a close soonish but the plan is to have three more chapters. They're all going to be normal length like five to ten thousand words long. Then again, I always surprise myself with how much I end up writing xD we'll see.

I wasn't going to write an epilogue at first because they're always cliché, boring, and really dumb and whatnot but I sort of have a good idea for one so I'll probably end up writing one anyways. :) Also, at the end of the epilogue I was thinking about doing a Q/A thing in case you guys want to ask questions about the story or myself in case you're curious about things. (e.g. What was the purpose of this scene? Character development. What is your gender? Male)

Haha just kidding, I'm a girl. Oh and no creepy questions bro because you're going to get ignored! Unless you just want to test my limits...

So yeah, if you have any questions, you can ask me through reviews or PM and expect it answered when the story is complete which will probably be in two to three weeks. (or even sooner because lately i've just really liked writing lately and i can't seem to stoppp)

That's all! Thanks for reading and please review. :)

**Review Responses:**

SerendipityInSerendipity: Wow your review didn't even fit in my email. I actually had to go read it on the site LOL but naw, I don't really see how your comments were criticism. They seemed more like observations to me. Or maybe you just wanted your own section at the bottom of my chapter. Hehe jk. I always saw criticism as "Wow, you just suck. Stop writing." But hopefully you don't feel that way…:) It makes me happy that you pointed stuff out because now I have a chance to explain why I, as the author, did things the way I did it. xD

So anyways, no I don't really plan to explain the dreams within the story. I was planning on having the readers think on it themselves. That's why I just kept it vague with the whole angels thing. I do plan to have Kari sort of bring it up to TK but she will have a monologue where she thinks about it. I don't think you have to explain everything logically. This is an AU story with its own supernatural twists I guess, to put it that way.

Dude. Matt just sucks. I never liked his character in the show too much and I actually don't think I'm going to bring him back. The point was to provide closure over the family situation and whatnot. I sort of felt bad making TK's life so lonely and I felt like he needed to see his brother at least once. And I sort of needed him to make Kari realize a few things. Also, I based his quick apology on the show because that's how he was during the Dark Masters Arc where he's just emotionally all over the place. One minute he's pissed, the next minute he's like "I'm so sorry", and the next, he wants to go on his own. Bascially, I tried to emulate the "Whaaat? Are you emotional roller coasters even realistic, Matt?" feeling into his character in my story. Plus, in both of these contexts, Matt is struggling with the idea of whether or not he is a good older brother and whether or not TK really needs him so I guess it works out. Well, that's how it is in the English dub…I've never seen the Japanese version just because I'm scared it will destroy my childhood. LOL

Willis' character here sucks too. I'm actually kinda sad because I just decided to knock out a whole plot line in the story. It was going to be centered on Willis and Kari but I decided that it would actually kill the flow of the story line with how I have it planned. :( But yes. Davis will return in the present story line so you will find out what happens. Though I'm worried you might be disappointed by the outcome we'll see xD Oh and the reason I said, "We hope to see you again" is because I was quoting her famous line from the Gameboy games. I just couldn't find the heart to misquote her like that for the sake of grammatical consistency. :'( I hope you understand hehehe :) Oh and yes! It is possible to retain a good natured personality despite a dark past. Look at Batman. He turned out pretty good. And Spiderman too! Did you know in the comics, he was sexually harassed as a child? Still fights for justice!

That is all.


	6. Sunsets Don't Last Forever Part 1

**Disclaimer: **I don't own digimon. :F

**A/N:** Glad you guys liked the last chapter! :D Even though it was short and a bit random, it was def necessary for a couple reasons. One, TK promises himself that if he were to ever see her once more, he would not let her out of his sight again. Even though he breaks his own promise the first time he sees her at the bridal shop, this becomes fulfilled in the first chapter when he finds her at the park. Second, it also explains why TK has Sora's number when Kari asks him to tell Sora his address in the second chapter. Details of their eventual meeting will come up in a later chapter. :D

That's all for now and on with the chapter! And thanks again reviewers! And followers…and favoriters..? :)

* * *

**Present ~ October 2012**

"Kari! Walk slower!" TK shouted as he quickly made his way in front of Kari. She was carrying a box in her arms carelessly, causing TK to freak out and hold his arms in front of the box to keep it from slipping out of her grip.

"What the heck, TK? What's even in here that I have to be so careful with?" Kari asked, clearly annoyed, as she struggled to carry the box through the office building. It was decently wide and somewhat heavy for someone of her stature to lug around.

"Can't you see that it says 'FRAGILE' on here? Gotta learn to read and deal with things, silly," he teased and stuck his tongue out at her.

"Learn to deal with _this_, you jerk," she sassed him and shoved the box into TK's arms. She walked away knowing her come-back was awful but figured that the least she could do was walk away in victory.

This caught TK by surprise, however, as he began to panic with the box in his arms and almost lose his footing. It was a good thing he wasn't as clumsy as Kari as he was able to regain his footing. He chuckled at the last thought of Kari's clumsiness while he began to chase after Kari who was already a good distance away from him. "Wait! Kari, don't go! You have to carry this box!" he pleaded with her.

Kari turned around and gave him a grumpy face before responding. "I don't understand why you asked me to meet you all the way down to the first floor of the office building just to ask me to carry a box that you could have carried yourself," she complained as she stood in the hall waiting for him to catch up to her. "Aren't you the man? Isn't it your job to carry the heavy things for the girl? Plus, you actually care about whatever garbage is inside of here."

"Because," TK spoke with a cheerful smile as he placed the box back in her arms, "I'm your boss and I pay you. Therefore, you have to do as I say!"

"More like you just want to see me struggle," she quietly grumbled as she reluctantly accepted the box back into her arms. At least they were almost at their company's part of the hallway.

"Yeah, you're right," TK confessed and laughed at her happily. Kari rolled her eyes at him as they finally made it to the door. She couldn't believe that at the age of twenty-three, he still had not outgrown his love for teasing her.

TK opened the door for her and Kari raised an eyebrow at the sight before her. The entire office was pitch-black and all the window blinds were shut—it was almost a bit creepy. "TK, what's going on?" she asked as she looked over to him.

TK chuckled at her confusion as he hit the light switch on. Kari gasped as she saw all the company's employees gathered around the door with party hats on as they simultaneously shouted, "SURPRISE!"

Kari covered her mouth in shock, not exactly sure of what to say. "Wait, you guys. I'm seriously so confused. It's not my birthday…" Everyone in the room began to laugh at Kari's misinterpretation of the situation. She began to shrink behind the box, embarrassed that she was currently being left in the dark about what was going on.

"We know, Kari!" Izzy said, still unable to control his laughter. "Just open the box!"

"Uh…okay…" Kari responded as she placed the box on a table before her. After being handed a pair of scissors by one of the secretaries, Kari began to unseal the tape and open the box before her. She gasped as she saw a red velvet cake inside of a plastic case that had the words, 'Congratulations Kari!' written in frosting on top."Omigosh, thank you guys so much," she said sweetly as she lifted the cake out of the box.

"We just wanted to congratulate you on finishing such a major project at this company," Izzy stated as he walked over to her and handed her a knife. "You've really done a great job and we wanted to thank you for working so hard!"

"Aww, you guys are seriously too awesome," Kari replied, completely flustered. "I was just trying to do my job," she said as she smiled at the cake, admiring the thoughtfulness of the company. It had been a tough past few months working on the project and making sure things were going smoothly. She had stayed overtime a countless number of nights and met up with other employees constantly to check up on them and make sure everyone was on the same page. After going through countless numbers of drafts, designs, and business meetings, she was thankful that this part of the job was finally done.

As Kari removed the plastic cover and lifted the knifed to cut the cake, Joe's voice began to call out from the other side of the room. "Wait! We all have to make our wishes!" Joe shouted as he ran over with candles and a lighter in his hands.

"Hold on, I thought I said it wasn't my birthday. Why are we making wishes?" Kari asked as she considered such an action somewhat childish for a business setting.

"Just think of it as a company tradition, Kari. We always do this when we celebrate with cake!" Izzy explained as he set the lighter aflame.

"Wait…but why?" Kari asked with a blank face as she began to set up the candles and help Izzy light the wicks.

"Because it's fun?" Joe responded with a sarcastic laugh as if the answer was quite obvious. "Plus we're a small company so doing things like makes us feel more like a family."

Kari laughed lightly at his response finding the idea sweet and comforting knowing that she was now a part of this family. "Yeah, you're right," she replied with a warm smile. After working at the company for a few months, she had grown closer to many of the workers and because everyone got along well, their teamwork spurred on their success and productivity. She was more than thankful for the small miracle that had allowed her to work for such a company in the first place. "Alright, everyone! Let's make a wish!" Kari said with excitement after all the candles were lighted.

Kari scanned the room and watched as everyone began to close their eyes and make a wish. As her gaze made its way to the back of the room, her eyes seemed to lock on with another pair of eyes as if there were some eerie, entrancing force keeping her from looking away. They made her feel vulnerable and defenseless as she felt herself slowly slip away from reality for just an ephemeral moment. They were haunting and mysterious, just as they had always been. After all, they were TK's eyes—and though she had found herself eye-to-eye with him like this before, for the first time ever, there was almost a terrifying feeling. A feeling that seemed to swallow her completely and stop time itself. It was a terrifying feeling that caused her heart to grow heavy, but at the same time, it made her heart feel completely whole.

"Kari, are you ready?" came Izzy's voice.

Kari snapped herself out of her thoughts and looked up at the ceiling to quickly think of her wish. "Yeah," she responded as she lowered her gaze back to TK and gave him a small smile. As she dropped her head to blow out the candles, she was certain that just a split second before she had broken eye contact, TK had smiled back at her.

* * *

"So, did you like the surprise, Kari?" TK asked as the two of them fastened their seatbelts in the car.

"Yeah, I did!" she responded cheerfully.

"Aren't you glad I got you to come downstairs to get the box?" TK joked as he turned to face her with a huge grin on his face.

"Yeah, I guess. But I still don't see why you made me carry the cake!"

"But I totally made up for it in the end right?"

"No, definitely not," she responded curtly in a joking manner. Pouting, TK shot her a fake frown causing Kari to roll her eyes and laugh at his silly behavior. "Okay, fine. I liked it a lot, TK," she confessed with a sweet smile.

"I'm glad," he responded warmly with his lips upturned while looking out into the road.

"Yeah…" her voice trailed off as she began to stare at his smile. If she didn't know any better, she was practically admiring it. After realizing what she was doing, she shook her head and attempted to mentally brush off what she had just caught herself doing.

"By the way, Kari, I know we threw that party and everything, but I just wanted to personally thank you for everything you've done. You really have done a great job, you know? It's not easy to find workers who will work as dedicated as you did with all that extra effort you put in and all those overtime hours."

Kari grew slightly flustered at his comment trying to stop her pride from puffing up. "Oh, it was nothing. Just trying to do a good enough job so that I can keep my job. Didn't want to let anyone down, ya know what I meant?" Kari sighed before giving TK a guilty look. "Honestly, I worked really hard because I felt terrible for how I acted before I started the project." Looking back on it, Kari felt slightly embarrassed about how immature she was refusing to cooperate the way she did. It was truly a wonder how TK didn't choose to give up on her at that time.

She looked over to TK who quickly gave her a sympathetic look before returning his eyes on the road. "Don't worry about it, Kari. I mean, it was reasonable the way you felt."

Kari clenched a part of her skirt over the mixed emotions she was feeling. Though she was still experiencing the guilt of her past actions, she couldn't help but feel touched at how understanding TK was trying to be with her. "No, but it really wasn't reasonable," she confessed with a deep frown. "It was very rash of me. I let my emotional state get the best of me and could have made you look really bad. I just…I…" she stammered, unsure of how to word her complex feelings.

"Hey, don't worry about it," he comforted her, reaching out a hand to rub her shoulder. However, this action seemed to strike Kari in a way that was far from comforting as she felt herself stiffen in her seat. She noticed her breathing pattern shift abnormally as a choking sensation grew within her throat. He had, in fact, made her utterly _uncomfortable_.

"Yeah…I guess I shouldn't…" Kari struggled to let the words come out knowing she had to force out something. She breathed deeply in and out as she felt herself slowly calm down. Luckily, TK seemed to be oblivious to whatever was going on with her as he continued to speak.

"Besides, you already said sorry to me. Remember when you ran downstairs at two in the morning just to give me a hug and say sorry? Gosh, that was so sweet of you, Kar!" TK laughed, causing Kari to turn bright red with embarrassment and completely forget about her strange emotional state before.

"Hey! Don't bring that up. That was really embarrassing, TK!" she cried in her seat.

"Really? I thought it was really adorable. You should surprise me with hugs in the middle of the night more often," he joked with a wink. He was enjoying her flustered reaction a little bit too much.

"No!" she shouted at him while hitting him on the arm. "Takeru Takaishi, if you ever bring that up one more time, I swear, I will never apologize to you about anything ever again," Kari huffed as she crossed her arms.

TK chuckled, knowing it would be best if he backed off as he saw the glare she was giving him from the corner of his eye. "Fine, fine."

Kari sat in her seat for the rest of the car ride in silence as she watched the setting sun from her side of the window. She admired the way the red orb seemed to sneak behind the tall trees as the various colors, fiery yet somber, seemed to burst out and stretch into the never-ending distances of the sky. It was captivating and majestic, but as she watched the sun set before her eyes, it seemed to only amplify the emotions that were presently hammering in her chest—the emotions she was too frightened to identify.

A frown seemed to grow deeper and deeper on her face as the sun continued to set lower into the horizon, slowly disappearing along with the beautiful scene that was painting the heavens only moments before. What if all beautiful things were like that? What if all precious moments and joyful times were meant to just dwindle and fade away like the dull, vacant hue that was now enveloping the sky?

The past few months, though they were filled with countless numbers of fights with TK, and though she had struggled more than ever emotionally, they had been some of the best months of her life. And if Kari had to be honest with herself, she was never truly angry with TK during her fights with him—not ever. For them, it was always a special way of interacting, a way of saying how they felt without being fully honest, yet still understanding one another. And sometimes, she had to admit, their bickering was sort of fun.

Kari slouched in her seat as she smiled at the thought of how childish they could be with one another. For others, such behavior was a shameful thing, but to her, it was like the gasp of fresh air after running out of oxygen underwater—it was her burst of freedom from the hectic inward battles she would have with herself. As life seemed to continue to race on well ahead of her, there were moments that she would lose grasp of who she was, but one thing she knew for certain these past few months: there was always one hand available to hold onto.

However, she knew it wouldn't last forever—this crazed roller coaster would eventually make its way to a plateau and life would finally take a calm, deep breath and fall back into place once again. And then what? She wouldn't need _him_ anymore. Did she need him anymore? If she woke up the next day, back at her old house, would life become significantly different?

As they finally arrived back at TK's house, Kari hopped out of the car and walked towards the edge of the garage. She looked up to observe the sky one last time and stared into the depths of the darkness above her, realizing that the vast emptiness made her feel isolated and alone. Sooner or later, she knew that day would come when she would finally get over things, and besides life with her ex-fiancé, her world would go back to the way it used to be. She would be living alone and there would be no reason to see TK outside of work and unfortunately, she was unsure how that made her feel.

* * *

The next day came with the weekend as TK sat at the kitchen table typing away on his computer while giving occasional glances at Kari who was cutting vegetables for lunch. He frowned as he noticed the tired expression on her face and figured she was in deep thought about something troubling. He hoped that the surprise party would help make her feel better but apparently, she was struggling with something much greater than her job situation. He figured starting a conversation could possibly distract her from her trivial thoughts.

"Hey, Kari?" he started as Kari looked up at him with a confused face. "I was just wondering if you still paint like you did in high school. I mean, I guess you've been too busy with work these days, but did you do it while you were in college?"

"Oh, no not really," Kari said as she thought back to the days she would slave over her paintings after school. Suddenly a bad memory caused her to make a sour face. "Wait a minute, TK. Why would you even care? You used to make fun of my paintings and the fact that I put them up for sale online," she accused him with an annoyed face.

"Oh, right. You did those auctions," TK thought back with a reminiscent look. "Why'd you stop doing that? Didn't you used to do that to help pay your parent's medical bills?"

"Well, I got really busy with college and art projects I had to do for class. Then my parents told me that Tai got a raise and the government was helping to fund for medical research so the bills went down, or something? I didn't really understand what was going on but they said that they would be fine if I just focused on my studies," she said while continuing to prepare the food. After thinking about it again, it really was strange for the hospital to cut the bills; however, she couldn't exactly complain about it.

"You should of kept painting as a hobby though."

"Really now," she said with disbelief. "After you made fun of my work so much back in the day?"

"Did I really?" TK chuckled.

"How can you not remember? You used to visit me after basketball practice from time-to-time just to tell me that my work sucked," she glared at him with her arms crossed. "You were such a punk. And just to let you know, I made a lot of money doing that. You wouldn't believe how much people paid for some of my paintings."

"Yeah, I believe you," he responded with a distant look.

**Past ~ September 2005**

_The sound of TK's slow, relaxed footsteps could be heard as he made his way down the hallway towards the art classroom. It had been a tiring day of practice—not because the workout was tiring, but because he had to deal with some of the whacked-out teammates he was forced to play with. He was desperate for something to make him feel somewhat better. He smiled as he noticed the door to the art room left open knowing that it meant she was there working after school again. As he made his way over to the doorway, he leaned against the doorframe and admired the girl inside who was clearly hard at work. _

_She was completely engrossed in her art, paintbrush in hand, totally oblivious to the fact that someone was watching her. The sunlight filled the room and brightened her features and he smiled inwardly at her cute appearance. Every time she painted, she would clip her bangs back, tie her hair up, and wear a huge baggy shirt that she wasn't afraid to get dirty. To top it all off, she always made a certain face when she was in deep thought about her painting. It wasn't the typical peaceful, angelic expression that was typically described about artists. No—this was Kari and she was her own artist with her cheeks puffed, bottom lip bit, and eyes narrowed. It was quite a hilarious expression but at the same time, absolutely adorable._

"_Workin' hard, Kar?" he spoke, breaking her concentration. He noticed the annoyed expression grow on her face as she took a pause from her painting and breathed deeply._

"_Get out!" she shouted, shooting him a glare and chucking a spare paintbrush at him._

_Unfortunately for her, TK was incredibly athletic and managed to catch the paintbrush, chuckling as he made his way towards her. "Wow! I'm happy to see you too, Kari!" he greeted her cheerfully with a light laughter._

_After placing the brush back down on the table, he took a nearby chair and spun it around so that it faced forward towards him. He sat on it backwards with his arm and head resting on the chair's back support. Attempting to ignore his presence, Kari decided to go back to work. However, TK refused to accept the silence._

"_Wow…that is some squid you've got there," TK commented, pretending to be in awe as he let out a whistle. _

"_TK…it's supposed to be a person's face—not a squid. It's a painting of a mother holding a child," she replied, biting through her words while trying to keep her cool._

"_Wow, really? Don't you think the head is a bit pointy? People are going to mistake your painting for an underwater zoo…"_

"_TK!" she spoke a bit too loudly. She shot him a pissed look, annoyed that he had come to bother her just to mock her work. "You're lucky I don't take you seriously because otherwise I would have stopped painting after all the rude things you've said to me. It's a good thing I know you're just full of stupid!"_

"_Oh, Kari. You know I'm just kidding!" he said laughing at her. "You paint really well! I especially liked the last one you made, the painting of the forest? Huge fan." He then proceeded to stick his finger in a bright red glob of paint on her art palette and wiped his finger on her forehead all the way down to the tip of her nose. _

"_See you later, Kari!" he said, getting up from his chair and walking away, leaving a speechless Kari, horrified at what he had just done. TK smiled, happy that Kari had once again, made his day much brighter. _

**Present ~ October 2012**

The sound of the oven beeping broke the two of them out of their discussion of the past as Kari promptly walked over to take a look at the food.

"Looks like the meat's ready!" Kari said cheerfully and opened the oven door. The chicken looked perfect as the delicious aroma filled her nose. Excited to eat, she quickly reached into the oven to grab the food.

"Whatcha cookin', there?" came TK's voice unexpectedly. Surprised at his sudden appearance out of nowhere, Kari squealed at the sight of him over her shoulder and consequently burned her wrist against the oven rack.

"OW, OW, OWWWW! DARN YOU, TK!"

* * *

Kari sat on the kitchen counter trying to stomach the pain as TK sprayed cool water over the burn.

"TK, it's really okay, I can do this by myself," she told him, trying to be polite. "I feel bad bothering you like this—I mean—it's just a first degree burn."

"Don't worry, Kari. It's the least I could do for scaring you like that."

Kari's heart skipped a beat as she finally realized how close they were. As she sat on the kitchen counter, TK was standing only inches away with his head leaned over close to hers. She lifted her eyes from her burn and looked at his concerned face.

Kari began to feel the strange sensation in her heart again. She recalled the way her heart felt heavy earlier at the office before she made her wish and the way he had startled her with his touch that same day in the car. She bit her bottom lip in confusion, unsure of what she was exactly feeling. Whatever it was, she didn't like it.

"Um…TK?" Kari began as she slipped off the counter top and removed her arm from the water source, "Actually, I think I'll be okay," she said, unable to remain in his presence any longer.

Realizing that something was bothering her, TK immediately took her unburned wrist in his hand to keep her from going. "Kari, did I do something wrong?"

"Uh...no. Everything's good," she responded in a flustered manner. She refused to turn around, worried of what she might feel if she looked at his worried expression.

"If there's anything I can do, Kari, you know I'm always willing to listen," TK sighed as he slowly let go of her wrist. He figured she really didn't want to be near him at the moment.

"Yeah, I know," she replied with a sad smile before running off to her room, leaving TK alone in his confusion.

* * *

Kari pouted as she flipped through the clothes racks. She decided to make an escape to the mall, hoping that it would help make her feel better. However, it only seemed to make her even more frustrated. All the clothes were weird and nothing seemed to be her style. Maybe an escape to the spa would have been a better idea.

Because of the failure shopping trip, she was unable to let her mind slip away from her current situation. As she was attempting to find a new outfit, her mind was constantly slipping back to TK and all the little things he had been doing for her lately. After experiencing so much trouble from him in high school, it was still weird getting used to the fact that TK was actually a nice guy. Maybe it was best for her to take some time and sort out her heart on her own, after all.

She wondered how long it had been like this—or maybe it had always been this way and she never noticed? It was very possible that she was always preoccupied with her verbal skirmishes with TK that she failed to see that there was something in her heart. Then again, the strange feeling seemed to be almost too much to not notice. Perhaps she had always felt something for him and lately, it had grown to a point that not even her heart could deny? Kari shook her head in frustration—it was just weird. The thought of having romantic feelings for TK was almost too absurd to accept.

Then again, she could have been completely wrong about TK in high school. She remembered the days when she first moved into TK's house where she would have dreams about the past. It was almost as if they would appear in order to save her relationship with TK from falling apart in the present the way they did in the past. It was almost a bit too crazy that something like that could happen. However, if the dreams she was having were truly the reality of the past, then perhaps the foundations that she had placed her beliefs upon were now nonexistent. And if those foundations were now nonexistent, then what did she believe anymore?

Kari sighed as she stared at the shirt she had mindlessly taken out from the rack. Maybe it was time to give up on shopping. Not only had she failed to find a single shirt to buy, but she had completely failed at bringing her mind to ease on this mini-getaway. And worst of all, she was just as confused as ever with zero conclusions and only more questions.

As she put the shirt back on the rack, she noticed a large, pink cowboy hat walking past the rack next to her. Kari tilted her head in confusion as she noticed that the occupier of the hat was a very small little girl who was now walking up to her with a familiar pair of large brown eyes. The little girl smiled with a huge grin and held up a small, white paper bag.

"Would you like a cookie?" she asked cutely. Kari smiled sweetly at her, unsure what to say to the little girl.

Suddenly, a woman around Kari's age came from the other side of the store with a panicked look on her face. "Hana, I thought I told you that you're not allowed to run off and give strangers cookies. What would you do if you ran into not-so-nice people?" she asked as she picked up her daughter in a hug. Her voice gave away that she was close to crying.

"That lady over there looked really sad so I wanted to give her one of my cookies!" Hana replied proudly with an innocent, adorable grin on her face.

The woman turned around to look at Kari's shocked face as she watched the exchange between the mother and daughter. They both gasped as the realized they knew each other.

"Mimi…"

* * *

**A/N: **mmmm. Yay. :) so before you rage out on me about how it took me much longer than average to release a shorter than average chapter, this is actually part one of a full chapter! That means I wrote a whole entire chapter the past two weeks and decided to release it in two parts so since the second half is already written, it won't take very long for the next update to come out. :P (I would say two or three days?)

While polishing part one, I realized how it was already very emotional on its own and decided it would be best if I posted it separately from part two. In fact, part two is even more emotional than this one. It would just be too crazy if I had done otherwise. Plus, I wanted to play with a cliffhanger because I never end things on a cliffie. xD

Yeah, there was no fluff really but at least something special is definitely developing. :D Tell me what you guys thought of this chapter! Hope you all liked it. :)

Please review!


End file.
